If, for some unfathomable reason, author Franz Kafka should emerge from his grave to direct a music video, the result would most certainly resemble the one for “The Grave” by The Kafka Band, above.
The air of futility and social foreboding…
The chilly broken landscape, rendered in black and white…
Bikinis and bling…
(Kidding! Overcoats and haggard expressions.)
“The Grave” was directed by animator, Noro Holder, but the lyrics are credited to Kafka, drawn directly from his unfinished novel, The Castle. As the band’s name might imply, this is no fickle flirtation with the author’s sensibilities.
“The Grave” is actually part of a ten-song album inspired by The Castle. (Stream it on Spotify below.) As bandmate, author Jaroslav Rudiš, observed:
Kafka is often deemed as a dark author, yet we strive to challenge this cliché. The novel possesses plenty of black and absurd humour, which we reflected in some of our compositions.
The album led to a collaboration with Germany’s Theater Bremen on a theatrical adaptation that featured the music played live.
The moody woodcut-inspired visuals seen above come from a graphic novel adaptation of The Castle illustrated by Rudiš’ bandmate, Jaromír 99, in collaboration with David Zane Mairowitz, an American playwright who previously tackled Kafka’s The Trial.
At the point where another group might decide to take a detour into sunnier territory—a pop romp through the oeuvre of Milan Kundera perhaps—the Kafka Band is doubling down on another coproduction with Theater Bremen, an adaptation of Kafka’s novel Amerika (or The Man Who Disappeared), slated to open this fall.
The Grave
I’m dreaming of
Being with you
Without interruption
On earth
There is no space
For our love
Not in the village
Not anywhere else.
Deep in the earth / around us only death / the living won’t find us.
I’m imagining a grave
Deep and tight
We hold each other
My face next to yours
Yours next to mine
Nobody will ever see us
On earth there is no space
For our love.
Deep in the earth / around us only death / the living won’t find us.
Watch the video for “Arrival,” another track inspired by The Castle, with drawings by Jaromír 99 here.
Related Content:
Four Franz Kafka Animations: Enjoy Creative Animated Shorts from Poland, Japan, Russia & Canada
Ayun Halliday is an author, illustrator, and theater maker, soon to be appearing in a clown adaptation of Faust, inspired by the current administration and opening in New York City this June. Follow her @AyunHalliday.
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