Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke’s version of Franz Kafka’s famous unfinished novel is an ingenious, perversely faithful interpretation of the work. ‘Kafkaesque’ has come to mean the individual’s helplessness in the face of an incompetent or malign state apparatus which Haneke brilliantly exploits in his interpretation of the novel for which he has assembled a brilliant cast including the late Ulrich Mühe (The Lives of Others) and the late Susanne Lothar.

This rarely seen made- for-TV adaptation highlights how much Haneke has been influenced by the master of alienation.

Austria 1994, 123 mins. German with English subtitles. Directed by Michael Haneke.