JACKALS AND ARABS
A film by Jean-Marie Straub
2011, 10 minutes
2011, 10 minutes
No. 107
Narrative
Narrative
Description
Franz Kafka’s enigmatic animal story, written in 1917 on the eve of the Balfour Declaration, has been interpreted in myriad ways and embraced and rejected in equal measure by Arabs and Jews of divergent persuasions.
Straub’s abridged (but no less elusive) retelling has fascinating affinities with his and Danièle Huillet’s interpretation of Kafka’s Amerika in Class Relations.
Straub’s abridged (but no less elusive) retelling has fascinating affinities with his and Danièle Huillet’s interpretation of Kafka’s Amerika in Class Relations.
Reviews
"A Kammerspiel comedy about the Middle East quagmire based on Kafka’s eponymous short story — an enigmatic, twisted fable riddled with self-doubt and self-loathing. An urgent, timely, yet at the same time time-worn and forlorn work, realized in an aesthetic akin to that of Straub’s 2009 Corneille-Brecht — an epic staged in a living room." - Film Comment
