Franz

Directed by Agnieszka Holland, Franz is an intimate portrait of writer Franz Kafka, tracing his inner life from adolescence to his early death in 1924. Rather than a conventional biography, the film focuses on Kafka’s emotional conflicts—his fraught relationship with his authoritarian father, his longing for intimacy, and his struggle to reconcile daily life with creative obsession.

Set in early-20th-century Prague, the film explores Kafka’s identity as a German-speaking Jewish intellectual in a changing Europe. With a restrained, introspective tone, Franz reflects the themes of alienation, anxiety, and impermanence that define Kafka’s work. The film was Poland’s submission for the Academy Awards.