An examination of a number of movies originating from Kafka's works ("The Man Who Disappeared," "The Trial," "The Castle," etc.) suggests that different languages, cultures and political trends have produced a variety of interpretations and recreations. The trends and topics that have evolved show diverse but also unifying traits. Parallel to the literary and cultural interpretations also in the film versions based on Kafka's works, everyone builds his "own" Kafka. From Orson Welles' "The Trial," to Straub/Huillets Amerika-Version and Haneke's "The Castle" among others, the accents and the outcomes differ and show the seminal influence of this "global" writer which is still going strong. Some examples will be selected to show what elements in his works determined unifying or divergent cinematic translations.
