Kafka. In Love Brings His Letters to Life with Sand Animation
Skwigly
Kafka. In Love, the latest animated short film by Latvian director Zane Oborenko, will have its national premiere at the Riga International Film Festival on October 23rd, followed by the international premiere at the POFF in Estonia. Inspired by the famed Letters to Milena by Franz Kafka, the film explores the complex emotional landscape of falling in love, as revealed through Kafka’s intimate correspondence with Milena Jesenská. Oborenko’s use of sand animation brings a uniquely delicate texture to this portrayal of love, loneliness, and self-discovery.
The film transports viewers into a world where Kafka’s letters to Milena reveal a side of the writer that is rarely seen in his literary works. Their relationship, marked by geographical distance and Milena’s marriage, is defined by Kafka’s deep emotional connection to her, a love that fills his life with light but also illuminates his inner darkness. “Falling in love is a profoundly intimate experience that’s rarely shared with others, and certain aspects of it remain hidden even between lovers and from oneself,” says the director Zane Oborenko. “The primary interest and goal of this film was to portray the constant emotional shifts that the human mind undergoes when dealing with strong and complicated emotions – from positive to negative, influenced by fantasy and intruding reality.”
Kafka. In Love is brought to life using the painstaking and intricate art of sand animation, a technique that perfectly mirrors the fragile and shifting emotions portrayed in the film. “Sand has a natural texture and organic origin that makes it the perfect medium for expressing the transient illusions and complex feelings we experience when we fall in love,” explains Oborenko. Finding the right sand for the animation was a challenge in itself, with the team consulting geologists before finally discovering an ideal type of sand from a dune in Latvia, as well as desert sand from a Prague pet shop. The result is an evocative visual representation of Kafka’s emotional world, where each grain of sand captures the fleeting nature of his thoughts and feelings.
Produced by Sabīne Andersone of Latvia’s Atom Art, with co-producers Martin Vandas and Alena Vandasová of Czechia’s Maurfilm, Kafka. In Love marks the latest achievement for both independent studios. “This film took us on a challenging six-year journey, and it was reassuring to undertake it with such reliable, experienced partner as Maurfilm. The animation took place on specially built four specially built sand animation tables on which Zane together with a talented team of animators from Latvia and Czechia patiently created the inner world of Kafka,” says producer Sabīne Andersone.
Oborenko, who has developed a distinctive style of sand animation, previously won the Best Short Film Project Award for Kafka. In Love at the CEE Animation Forum in 2019.
“As we mark the 100th anniversary of Kafka’s death, we find ourselves agreeing with literary critics, iconic songwriters, and even youthful TikTok users – Kafka is as relevant today as ever, and it is exciting to discover and bring to the audience less known aspects of his literary legacy,” concludes producer Sabīne Andersone.