The Castle

K, a land surveyor, arrives in a village dominated by a castle and finds that no one expects him. The local authorities question whether he was ever truly summoned, and although he is allowed to stay for a time, he is set to work as a school caretaker while the castle remains out of reach. Every attempt to clarify his position runs into evasions, contradictory instructions and a bureaucracy that seems designed to keep him at a distance.

The film is Michael Haneke's adaptation of Franz Kafka's unfinished novel, which he also wrote for the screen. It was his sixth feature, following Funny Games and preceding Code Unknown. Ulrich Mühe plays K, with Susanne Lothar as Frieda, Frank Giering as Artur, Felix Eitner as Jeremias, Nikolaus Paryla as the village headman and André Eisermann as Barnabas. It was produced in Germany, Austria and France, with ARTE, ORF, BR and Wega Film Vienna among the companies behind it, and runs just over two hours.

On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.5 from around 3,849 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.1 from 70 votes. A critics' rating of 5 out of 10 from 52 reviews places it below the audience score on IMDb, indicating a divided response to Haneke's interpretation of Kafka's novel.