Franz Kafka was a German-speaking Bohemian Jewish novelist and writer from Prague. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typically features isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. It has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. His best known works include the novella The Metamorphosis and novels The Trial and The Castle. The term Kafkaesque has entered English to describe absurd situations like those depicted in his writing.
The Trial is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader. Heavily influenced by Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Kafka even went so far as to call Dostoevsky a blood relative. Like Kafka's two other novels, The Castle and Amerika, The Trial was never completed, although it does include a chapter which appears to bring the story to an intentionally abrupt ending.
Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka and first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition. The novella has been widely discussed among literary critics, who have offered varied interpretations. In popular culture and adaptations of the novella, the insect is commonly depicted as a cockroach.
Peter Kuper is an American alternative comics artist and illustrator, best known for his autobiographical, political, and social observations.
Yasmina Reza is a French playwright, actress, novelist and screenwriter best known for her plays 'Art' and God of Carnage. Many of her brief satiric plays have reflected on contemporary middle-class issues. The 2011 black comedy film Carnage, directed by Roman Polanski, was based on Reza's Tony Award-winning 2006 play God of Carnage.
Timothy Peter Pigott-Smith, was an English film and television actor and author. He was best known for his leading role as Ronald Merrick in the television drama series The Jewel in the Crown, for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 1985. Other noted TV roles included roles in The Chief, Midsomer Murders, The Vice, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, King Charles III and two Doctor Who stories. Pigott-Smith appeared in many notable films, including Clash of the Titans (1981), Gangs of New York (2002), Johnny English (2003), Alexander (2004), V for Vendetta (2005), Quantum of Solace (2008), Red 2 (2013) and Jupiter Ascending (2015).
Gregor is a masculine given name. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include:
Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life is a 1993 British short comedy film written and directed by Peter Capaldi. It stars Richard E. Grant as Franz Kafka and co-stars Ken Stott. The title refers to the name of the writer Franz Kafka and the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra, and the plot takes the concept of the two to absurd depths.
Zamzar is an online file converter and compressor, created by brothers Mike and Chris Whyley in England in 2006. It allows users to convert files online, without downloading a software tool, and supports over 1,200 different conversion types. Since its formation, the service has converted over 510 million files for users from 245 different countries. The service supports the conversion of documents, images, audio, video, e-Books, CAD files and compressed file formats.
Because of their long, persistent association with humans, cockroaches are frequently referred to in art, literature, folk tales and theater and film. In Western culture, cockroaches are often depicted as vile and dirty pests. Their size, long antennae, shiny appearance and spiny legs make them disgusting to many humans, sometimes even to the point of phobic responses.
The Ghost Writer is a 2010 neo-noir political thriller film directed by Roman Polanski. The film is an adaptation of a 2007 Robert Harris novel, The Ghost, with the screenplay written by Polanski and Harris. It stars Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, and Olivia Williams.
Grete or Grethe is a feminine given name, a derivate of Margaret. It is most often used in Scandinavia, Estonia, and German-speaking Europe.
Chris New is an English film and stage actor best known for his starring role in the 2011 film Weekend. New made his screen writing and directorial debut in 2013 with the short film Ticking. He co-wrote the 2014 independent film Chicken, and co-wrote and directed the 2014 independent film A Smallholding.
Belt Up Theatre was a British theatre company based in the north of England. Company directors Dominic J Allen, Jethro Compton, James Wilkes and Alexander Wright met whilst attending the University of York. The foursome set up the company in 2008 in the city of York.
Samahaara is an Indian theatre group based in Hyderabad. It was founded by two young theatre personalities, the actor-director Rathna Shekar Reddy and the playwright Anjali Parvati Koda. The group began with touring its maiden production, The Crest of the Peacock, an educational play on mathematics across the twin cities to schools and colleges, staging more than 50 shows. Their play Purushotham-He, the Victim of Spiders and Pressure Cookers written by Anjali Parvati Koda has received critical acclaim. The productions include the original plays, Dominic Wesley, written by Koda and directed by the UK-based Stu Denison, Gregor Samsa, Karna and The Last Wish Baby.Unlucky also directed by Denison, Rabindranath Tagore's Post Office, Woody Allen's God, Athol Fugard's The Island, “Acharya Tartuffe”, Hindi adaptation of Moliere’s controversial play ‘Le Tartuffe’, Edward Albee's Zoo Story. The army courtroom Hindi drama Court Martial by Swadesh Deepak has been performed and toured all over India by the group with Rathna Shekar essaying the role of Bikas Rai and has been cited as "gripping","engrossing and pathbreaking" and powerful. Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest was staged by the group and the actors received positive reviews about their "great comic timing".
Gísli Örn Garðarsson is an Icelandic actor and director. He is one of the founders of Vesturport, a theatre and film company based in Reykjavík, and is also sometimes a scriptwriter and producer. Before focusing on acting, he competed internationally as a gymnast.
Roee Rosen is an Israeli multidisciplinary artist, writer and filmmaker.
Body horror, or biological horror, is a subgenre of horror that intentionally showcases grotesque or psychologically disturbing violations of the human body or to any other creature. These violations may manifest through aberrant sex, mutations, mutilation, zombification, gratuitous violence, disease, or unnatural movements of the body. Body horror was a description originally applied to an emerging subgenre of North American horror films, but has roots in early Gothic literature and has expanded to include other media.
The Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, The Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and struggles to adjust to his new condition. The novella has been recreated, referenced, or parodied in various popular culture media.
The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa is a 1977 Canadian short animated fantasy film by Caroline Leaf, adapted from Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, told through the animation of beach sand on a piece of glass. The film features music by Normand Roger and sound by Michel Descombes. The film earned ten awards from the year of its release in 1977 through to 1981 as it was screened at various film festivals around the world.
