Kafka’s Transformative Communities has an ongoing partnership with the Ultimate Picture Palace (UPP) in Oxford. In October 2024, to mark the centenary of Franz Kafka’s death, UPP delivered a 'Kafka On Film' season, reflecting the significant impact of Kafka’s work on a wide variety of major film-makers, from Orson Welles to Terry Gilliam, David Lynch to Michael Haneke.
'Kafka On Film' began with one of the first, and probably best known, adaptation of a Kafka novel: Orson Welles's 1962 classic The Trial, with an introduction from Professor Carolin Duttlinger, who suggested the initial idea and worked with Guardian journalist Andrew Pulver and Tom Jowett at UPP to bring it to fruition. The screenings were attended by Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw and director Steven Soderbergh.
In March 2026, the research project collaborated with UPP again when the award-winning Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland came to Oxford for a public screening of her biopic FRANZ, which was Poland’s 2026 Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film. The screening was followed by a Director Q&A and audience comments included:
‘Informative. Insightful. Engrossing.’
‘Thought-provoking, welcoming, special.’
‘Stimulating, insightful, mind-changing.’
‘A really great example of research-led public engagement.’
When asked what resonated most with them and why, responses included:
‘History and how Kafka's work resonates with current times.’
‘The response from his friends and others when they heard his readings. I was surprised that people listened to books read in public. And that they were so moved in shock or in laughter. And I found that moving that people listened to readings and responded together, like we do today watching a film.’
When asked what the screening had inspired them to do, many audience members reported that they would read or re-read Kafka’s work, while one person commented ‘I’m a videographer so this is food for my own work.’
During her visit, Agnieszka Holland also visited the Bodleian to see the personal archive of Kafka, including family photos and manuscripts.
