The Trial

Joseph K. (played by Anthony Perkins, known for his role in Psycho) is an ordinary, unremarkable clerk. His orderly life begins to unravel when, one morning, he finds mysterious strangers in his room. The men declare that he has been arrested. Thus begins a stifling, surreal trial in which the protagonist does not even know the nature of the charges against him…

Upon its release, Orson Welles’s The Trial divided audiences and critics. Some accused the director of straying too boldly from the literary source material, while others saw this very aspect as the greatest strength of this mesmerizing vision. Welles himself emphasized in interviews: “It’s not so much an adaptation as a film inspired by the book, in which Franz Kafka is my collaborator and partner.”

Alongside Perkins, icons of world cinema shine on screen: Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, and Orson Welles himself in the role of the demonic and all-powerful attorney.

The film was never widely distributed in Poland, and only now, 64 years after its world premiere, will it have its Polish premiere.