»Kafka« mini-series as a prestige project by ARD and ORF: screenplays by Daniel Kehlmann, directed by David Schalko

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Author Kehlmann and director Schalko: "Ideal constellation"

Photo: Nicole Albiez / obs / NDR / Superfilm / Nicole Albiez

2024 is the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Kafka - for this anniversary, German and Austrian television are planning a six-part mini-series about the life of Kafka, who is considered the world's most widely read German-language writer and one of the most famous writers of the 20th century.

The screenplay comes from bestselling author Daniel Kehlmann ("Measuring the World") and director David Schalko ("Braunschlag"), as announced by NDR and Erste on Wednesday.

All ARD stations (NDR, WDR, SWR, BR, MDR, RBB, HR, SR and Radio Bremen) are involved in the »Kafka« project in co-production with the ORF and together with Schalko's production company Superfilm.

The screenplays are based on the three-volume Kafka biography by Reiner Stach, who also works here as a consultant.

"I'm proud and grateful that I was able to write the screenplays for the great director and storyteller David Schalko, based on Reiner Stach's standard work," Kehlmann was quoted as saying.

»Franz Kafka's nightmares are our daily reality: in his dark and yet comical visions he divined the world in which we all now live.

These visions didn't come out of nowhere, but grew out of his life, his family, his private environment.«

Joel Basman (Franz Kafka), Daniel Brühl (Max Brod), Nicholas Ofczarek (Hermann Kafka) and Liv Lisa Fries (Milena Jesenská) have been notified of the cast.

Filming is planned for spring 2023, the expected broadcast date in the ARD media library, in the first and in ORF should be in spring 2024.

Kafka died on June 3, 1924 at the age of 40.

feb/dpa