Plot Summary

Based on Franz Kafka’s unfinished novel, Michael Haneke’s The Castle is an elegant adaptation of a work that confronts man’s solitude in modern society. Like Kafka, Haneke is a master of his craft who uses the medium of film to capture the absurdity and soul-crushing nature of faceless bureaucracy and the mindless rut of day-to-day life people find themselves trapped in. When a land surveyor heads of to an isolated community run by a political body known as "The Castle," he finds himself caught in a bizarre network of paperwork and a system of rule where logic and human decency are lost in the maze of the local authorities. Ulrich Müe gives a brilliantly subdued performance that captures the mood and images of Kafka’s bleak worldview.