“Kafka‘s works many years ago painted a picture of our present life, full of disorder, compulsive busyness, broken relationships and unrelenting suffering. Paradoxically, it is the world of suffering created by Kafka that invites change today, replacing the noise of dubious value with a slow and meaningful search for one’s own way. Critically evaluating cinema and interpretations of his works, Kafka and his vast literary world became an inspiration for the most interesting and talented writers of the 20th century. directors”, says the founder and artistic director of the festival, Gražina Arlickaitė.
Photo of the organizers/”Procesas”. Dir. Orson Welles
Kafka and cinema: the inexhaustible world of literary works
The retrospective program will begin with the European adaptation of the American classic Orson Welles’ The Trial (1962). The director created the film as an endless nightmare of reflections and shadows, shooting in different cities from the Orsay station in Paris to Zagreb, and the elongated figure and clumsy movements of the actor Anthony Perkins embodied the drama of the anti-hero caught in the labyrinth of bureaucracy.
A conversation with him will be created by the Polish director Agnieszka Holland in 1980. the television version of this work was created and “The Process” (1994) realized by Algimantas Puipa’s LRT, the choice of which the director understood at the time as his destiny, drawing the thematic and aesthetic contours of his later works.
Organizers’ photo/”Brazil”. Dir. Terry Gilliam
French film innovators Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, who often sought inspiration for their films from the authors’ unfinished works, turned to Kafka’s first, unfinished novel, America, in Class Relations (1984). With the film “Castle” (1997), the Austrian director Michael Haneke delved into the latest period of the writer’s creative biography, choosing the last and unfinished work as a starting point – the film skillfully conveys Kafka’s dystopian vision, faithfully following the original language and tone of the novel.
Czech New Wave creator Juraj Herz’s macabre masterpiece of black comedy, horror and political satire The Cremator (1969) was completed immediately after the Prague Spring and banned in Moscow the same year. Director Terry Gilliam was inspired to create the film Brazil (1985) by the timeless samba tunes that accompany the entire film and at the same time turn into a nightmarish vision of the future. The program will close with Georg Maas and Judith Kaufman’s The Pride of Life (2024), dedicated to Kafka’s last years of life and his last love.
Photo of the organizers/”Class relations”. Dir. Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
Cinema and theater dialogue
The theme of Kafkaesque metamorphosis will be extended by a one-off session at the Lithuanian National Drama Theater, symbolically repeating the retrospective program “Cinema and his Deputy” held last year, dedicated to the relationship between cinema and theater.
Scottish-born actor and film director Peter Capaldi, who has been awarded several times for his roles in popular TV series, in the film “Franz Kafka. A Wonderful Life” (1993) will invite you to imagine how “Metamorphosis” was created, and the actors Dalia Michelevičiūtė, Rasa Samuolytė and Darius Gumauskas – to embody themselves in Kafka’s world, which eventually began to no longer obey the writer and live an independent life.
Photo of the organizers/”Class relations”. Dir. Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
This year, the European film festival “Scanorama” will take place from November 7 to 21 in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Panevėžys, Marijampole and Visaginas. The project is partially financed by the Lithuanian Film Center.
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