Kulturhaus Frankfurt

Someone must have slandered Josef K.... so begins the nightmarish, absurd novel "The Trial" by Franz Kafka, whose protagonist Mr. K. moves through a labyrinth of opaque circumstances and finds himself at the mercy of anonymous forces.

The bank procurator Josef K. is arrested on the morning of his 30th birthday without being aware of any guilt. Despite his arrest, K. is still allowed to move around freely and continue his work. He tries in vain to find out why he has been charged and how he could defend himself. In the process, he comes across a court that is beyond his grasp, whose offices are located in the attics of large, poor tenements. The women who are connected to the court world and whom K. tries to recruit as "helpers" exert an erotic attraction on him. Josef K. desperately tries to find access to the court, but he does not succeed. He becomes increasingly preoccupied with his trial, although he initially intended the opposite. He gets further and further into a nightmarish labyrinth of surreal bureaucracy. He penetrates deeper and deeper into the world of the court. At the same time, however, the court also intrudes more and more into Josef K.'s life. Whether a trial of some kind is actually progressing secretly remains hidden from both the reader and Josef K.. The same applies to the verdict: K. is not told, but he himself feels that his time is up. Josef K. submits to an intangible, mysterious verdict without ever finding out why he was charged and whether a court has actually passed judgment. On the eve of his 31st birthday, Josef K. is picked up by two men and stabbed "like a dog" in a quarry.

Photo: Kulturhaus Frankfurt

29.10., 7 p.m.

Kulturhaus Frankfurt, Pfingstweidstr. 2, Frankfurt

2for1: 22 €

29.10., 18-18.30, box office