An eminent master nearing his eighties has taken on the challenge of creating a biographical film about a writer whose name everyone knows. This was an adventurous undertaking by all accounts, with the production team calling it, "the most ambitious project yet." Agnieszka Holland, long fascinated by Kafka, began adapting his life for film after decades, aiming to diverge from conventional interpretations and established images. In other words, while it′s a film about Kafka, Franz is less about adhering to the dictionary definition of ‘Kafkaesque’ and more about the director′s culmination of images she′s explored for a long time. The mosaic of Kafka’s brief life even ventures into rather specialized areas. It doesn′t miss the relationships with the figures who greatly influenced him—family, lovers, and friends—while notably attempting to connect Kafka with the present time. Stripping away his somber, mysterious facade, the revived Kafka sometimes even smiles, which is unexpected. (LEE Yong Cheol)