Dir. Jan Švankmajer
Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2018
DCP, 98 min.
Jan Švankmajer, known for mixed-media animation, presents here
Insect. Influenced by the work of Karel and Josef Čapek, the Czech gallows humor and self-referentiality—found also in Kafka, who spent most of his life in Prague—is palpable in this mise-en-abyme dark comedy. The players and the makers of the play not only break the fourth wall, but, in nested and restless narrative, implant in the viewer the sense that they too are in an endlessly recursive world.
The series 'Decoding Kafka: A Cinematic Interpretation' is programmed by Irena Čajková and presented by Doc Films in partnership with the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago, the Goethe-Institut Chicago, and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Chicago.
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