Kafka For Kids, A Musical Comedy, 111 minutes, 2022
Kafka For Kids is set as the pilot episode for a TV series that perversely aims to make Kafka’s tales palpable for toddlers. The story delivered in this first episode is The Metamorphosis.
While the tale of Gregor Samsa's transformation into a vermin is rendered in animation, the reading of the story occurs in live action, in the magical story-house, where an unnamed grandparent figure reads the story to a child, surrounded by a troupe of lively objects, such as Ms. Lamp and Mr. Table. These animistic friends dub the tale's characters, and perform the film's songs, accompanied by a toy orchestra. As the plot thickens, the ensemble is joined by other mascots, such as The Bearer of Bad News, who, true to his name, delivers with each of his visits a disastrous development, the first of which is the fact that Kafka himself prohibited visual depictions of the vermin.
The centrality of the law in Kafka’s writings and thought, and the notions of childhood that are explored in the film lead towards its end to a very different narrative realm: an exposition of the complex and troubling ways in which childhood is legally circumscribed in the occupied territories by military law.
Starring
Child / Legal Expert — Hani Furstenberg
Storyteller — Jeff Francis
The Bearer of Bad News — Eli Gorenstein
Ms. Chair / Mother — Orna Katz
Ms. Closet / Cleaning Lady — Nadia Kucher
Mr. Ball / Father / Painter — Yiftach Mizrahi
Ms. Lamp / Grete — Yifeat Ziv
Mr. Chair / Lodger — Ayelet Robinson
Mr. Table / Clerk / Joseph — Hillel Benjamin Rosen
Titorelli — Yam Umi
And The Igor Krutogolov Toy Orchestra
Main Credits
Written, Directed and Painted by — Roee Rosen
Music Composed and Arranged by — Igor Krutogolov
Producers — Roee Rosen & Max Lomberg
Co-produced by — Michel Balagué, Volte Films
Director of Photography — Avner Shahaf
Editor — Max Lomberg
Animation — Ofeq Shemer & Ada Rimon
Costume Design — Maya Bash
Choreography — Renana Raz
Props — Gal Melnick
MakeUp Artist — Orly Ronen
Gaffer — Nir Rachmin
Set Design — Roee Rosen
On the set images and film stills from Kafka for Kids (Still photos: Goni Riskin, cinematographer: Avner Shahaf)
Roee Rosen’s gouaches for the animation scenes of Kafka for Kids
Lady in Furs for Gregor’s Room, oil on canvas, 2017
