Kafka's the Burrow
2014 | 110 min | Drama
In a psychological drama based on Franz Kafka's work, Axel Prahl portrays a man fleeing from threats he never sees—but feels.
Axel Prahl
ActorActor and musician Axel Prahl, born in Eutin in 1960, is one of the most memorable performers in German-language film and television. Repeated collaborations with director Andreas Dresen, for example in the films *Nachtgestalten* (1999) and *Halbe Treppe* (2002), have had a significant impact on his career. He was honored with the Bavarian Film Award for his performance in Halbe Treppe and received a Silver Bear at the Berlinale as part of the ensemble cast. Since 2002, he has been known to a wide audience primarily for his role as Chief Inspector Frank Thiel in the popular Münster Tatort series.
In KAFKA'S THE BUILDING (2014, directed by Jochen Alexander Freydank), Prahl plays the lead role of a man trapped in a claustrophobic world of fear and control. Inspired by Franz Kafka's short story, the film was shown at international festivals and attracted considerable attention thanks to its haunting staging and Prahl's intense performance. His ability to make existential themes tangible shapes the impact of this extraordinary work.
In addition to his film work, which also includes productions such as Gundermann (2018), Prahl is also active as a musician and releases albums.
Films
Recommended for you
Der Papst ist kein Jeansboy
2011 | 73 min | Documentary
Hermes Phettberg used to be a mountain of a man, but now, due to illness, he has dangerously slimmed down. Despite his physical deterioration, this self-proclaimed “failure of a man” is still a charismatic commentator on Austrian society. As Austria's most famous welfare recipient fights for daily survival, he spends his days on the internet and writes a weekly column in the famous Vienna city magazine “Der Falter”.
The Amber Amulet
2013 | 23 min | Kids & Family
Liam knows everything about the positive energy of gemstones and minerals. At night, dressed as a masked avenger, he wanders the streets seeking to do good deeds in secret. He makes anonymous contact with an unhappy lonely woman and gifts her an amber gem which will lift the curse of her misfortune. Unfortunately, the gem has come from his mother’s jewellery box. She soon discovers it is missing and now she's the one who could do with a knight in shining armour. The short film THE AMBER AMULET ...
Faust 1 Superstar
2015 | 51 min | Drama
Silent movie meets musical in this intense and colourful version of the classic piece by Goethe, FAUST. The devil wagers with God that he can lead Berlin-Kreuzberg musician Faust astray. Faust composes a sure-fire hit and falls for the virtuous Gretchen. Fate is set to take its course. Director Mingus Ballhaus is a graduate of the DFFB - German Film and Television Academy Berlin, who lives and works in Berlin as a filmmaker and drummer. Here Ballhaus is supported by cinematographer Jide Tom Akinleminu ...
Bastard in Mind
2022 | 86 min | Documentary
In the summer of 2014, a life-threatening aneurysm (an arterial outpouching) in the brain of the director of this film was discovered during a random examination and had to be treated surgically as soon as possible. Due to the size, shape and location of the aneurysm, it was initially unclear whether and by what method surgery could be performed at all. The frightening diagnosis, this twist of fate and the two long traumatic months until the operation, during which the aneurysm could have burst ...
Are You Sleeping, Brother Jakob?
2018 | 80 min | Documentary
Stefan Bohun and his three remaining brothers search the past for traces their deceased brother Jakob, who took his own life. This is a very personal film about mourning and saying goodbye, yet also about acceptance and joy, reuniting, and reconnecting with people you love. Jakob had moved to Portugal, but he often suffered from homesickness and despair. The last sign of life that his brother Stefan saw was a changed profile picture in a social network which showed the Larein Valley in the Alps. ...
Stuttering – My Constant Companion
2017 | 89 min | Documentary
Birgit Gohlke, a film and media scholar, has stuttered since early childhood. She deals well with it, but after watching "The King's Speech", Birgit decides to take action. Together with speech therapist Petra Nickel they created STUTTERING – MY CONSTANT COMPANION. Along with Birgit Gohlke herself and David Seidler - author of "The King's Speech" who himself stuttered as a teenager - three other stuttering protagonists talk about their day to day challenges. "An enriching film that breaks down ...
Gisela
2005 | 90 min | Drama
A dreary highrise apartment block, inhabited by the less fortunate members of society. In the middle of it all lives Gisela, married, one child, a cashier, unsatisfied and discontent. Georg and Paul, two no longer young petty thieves from the anonymous housing estate, indulge in drinking bouts and sexual boasts and fall under the spell of the married supermarket cashier Gisela. Gisela doesn't say no when the easygoing Georg invites her to his party. There she meets Paul. He's also just hanging out, ...
The Dreamed Ones
2016 | 89 min | Documentary
The correspondence between Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan forms the basis of the text. The story begins in Vienna in 1948, when she is 22 and he 27, and ends with Celan's suicide in 1971 in Paris. Two young actors, Anja Plaschg and Laurence Rupp, meet in a recording studio to read from their correspondence. The dramatically fluctuating feelings of the letters - between intoxication and fear of loss, delight and horror, closeness and strangeness - are passed on to the actors.
Grimm’s Cuckoo
2012 | 15 min | Shorts
Joachim suffers from hallucinations. Suffers? Not really, because the “patrulls“, little paper men, entertain him fabulously; and his stay in the psychiatric clinic finally offers him peace and quiet, away from the turbulences of the outside world, that is until Alma enters his life, whose fairy-like appearance turns everything upside down.
Herbstflattern
2013 | 66 min | Drama
The feature film debut HERBSTFLATTERN by Birgitta Weizenegger (Lindenstraße, Tatort: Brüder) tells the story of Lene, a counselor at an orphanage, who was treated at a psychiatric clinic after a young girl in her care suffered a tragic accident. Once out of the hospital, she becomes obsessed by a man she meets in an online chatroom who goes by the name 'Be Good'. With only a mobile number and a blurry photo at hand, she searches for 'Be Good' in the streets of Berlin. "The film is a fascinating ...