Kafka Goes to the Movies

Kafka was a movie-goer. What films did Kafka see? What traces did they leave in Kafka’s works? Hanns Zischler offered preliminary answers to these questions in his book “Kafka Goes to the Movies” in 1996, which was translated into nine languages and is meanwhile out of print. Since then, further research has not only dug up more films, but also photos, newspaper reports, postcards, film advertisements, distribution texts, censorship cards etc., as well as related texts by Kafka himself and his contemporaries. Kafka’s plans for Palestine, for example, are quite revealing in view of the Zionist propaganda film “Shivath Zion” (The Return to Zion), which is now available in a completely remastered version. The new edition of the book, published by the Verlag Galiani in Berlin, contains new material which only became available with the digitalisation of large film archives and a significant number of silent films on DVD. Film series have been shown in e.g. Munich, Paris and Prague, highlighting the films that Kafka had seen. The project particularly highlighted those films he watched on his journeys and visits to each respective location.

Artistic directors: Hanns Zischler, Stefan Drößler
Films: Shivath Zion (1920), Nick et le vol de la Joconde (1911), La Broyeuse des coeurs

Additional Events:

Prague, Filmový ústav, 2–3 June 2017
Bologna, Cineteca di Bologna, 2–5 July 2017
Marseille, FID Festival International de Cinéma, 7 July 2017