Tim Roth becomes a bug and his family becomes the real monsters.
TV film of Steven Berkoff's stage adaption of Kafka's famous story in which a young man, who is the sole financial supporter of his family, awakes one morning in the form of a giant dung beetle and thereby becomes a nuisance to his family, who must now learn to rely upon themselves.
Acting
Roth's physical transformation without prosthetics is genuinely disturbing.
Direction
Berkoff's stylized movement direction creates surreal domestic horror.
Production
Sparse sets force focus on bodies and relationships.
Director
Jim Goddard
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Berkoff's adaptation strips Kafka's bureaucratic satire to bare familial warfare, making it feel more contemporary than most literal translations.
Roth reportedly trained with Berkoff's theatre company for months to master the insectile movement vocabulary seen in the film's most harrowing sequences.
GB
