TIFF Review: “Franz”

Franz (Agnieszka Holland, 2025) 4 out of 5 stars

The writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924), though he died far too young (of tuberculosis), left behind a literary legacy that has lasted into our present. Works such as his story “In the Penal Colony,” his novella The Metamorphosis, and his novel The Trial have proved enormously influential, even though most of his works were only published after his death. We have his friend Max Brod to thank for us knowing about him at all, since he disobeyed Kafka’s direct request to destroy his unpublished writings.

In Franz, director Agnieszka Holland (Mr. Jones) creates a dizzying and supremely entertaining sketch of the Prague-based author—who was Czech and Jewish and wrote in German—from his childhood to final moments, and well beyond. Of the many clever cinematic tricks employed by Holland, my favorite is the way she cuts to the modern day and the many visitors to Prague’s Kafka Museum, sometimes even placing Kafka in seeming dialogue with the tourists come to pay homage. He might be horrified at his unwitting legacy, but somewhere, perhaps, he looks upon the pilgrims with pleasure.

After all, when alive, he labored hard to see his efforts disseminated, overcoming his father’s frustration with these distractions from the family business (selling clothing) and his own professional obligations as a lawyer. He was also a prodigious letter writer—as one tour guide at the museum announces, thereby a kind of social-media influencer of his era—so no shrinking violet, either. He had friends, and enjoyed company; hardly a Gregor Samsa (the protagonist of “The Metamorphosis” who is turned into a cockroach-like bug), though certainly an eccentric.

Another of Holland’s succesful bits of mise-en-scène is her occasional recreation of Kafka’s works themselves, including “”in the Penal Colony,” intercut with scenes of Kafka peforming a public reading of the same text. All of it, including sequences of Kafka’s fumbling love life, his obsession with physical fitness, and his close relationship with his youngest sister, Ottla, form a comprehensive portrait of the man and artist. Holland also brings in the sad fact that his sisters all died in concentration camps during the Holocaust, via one of her flash-forwards, adding especial poignancy to the narrative.

Idan Weiss is terrific in the title role. Not only does he bear a strong resemblance to the actual person, but his performance is beautifully nuanced. As Kafka’s extroverted, bon vivant of a father, Peter Kurth (Two to One) perfectly incarnates the physical opposite of his son, all bluster and over-the-top emotionality. As Ottla, Katharina Stark (Dead Girls Dancing) is sweetly nurturing towards her beloved brother, and as Brod, Sebastian Schwarz (I’m Your Man) offers fiery support. The rest of the cast is excellent, as well.

Though the biopic genre has its cinematic limitations, Holland nevertheless delivers a movie that almost always innovates in refreshing fashion. She ends with a recording from the automated messaging line of the Kafka museum: “If you want a personal meeting with Kafka, say Franz.” And so we do, and it is an intimate, fascinating get-together.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator, as well as Film Festival Today's Editor. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.