San Cristóbal de La Laguna, July 23rd, 2024.- The Canary Islands Fantastic Film Festival Ciudad de La Laguna Isla Calavera commemorates together with the San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Week the centenary of the death of Czech writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924) with the publication of an essay written by Canarian philologist Jonathan Allen and Madrid writer and film critic Jesús Palacios, who received the Isla Calavera Award for the Dissemination of Fantastic Film in 2022.
Edited by Hermenaute, 'Kafka, lo kafkiano y el cine fantástico' approaches the enormous influence of the author to the genre throughout history, not only through adaptations of his works, but also through the influence that his work has exerted on countless filmmakers. Orson Welles ('The Trial', 1962), David Hugh Jones ('The Kafka Trial', 1993), Michael Haneke ('The Castle', 1997) or Valeri Fokin ('Metamorphosis', 2002) are some of the directors who have brought his novels and stories to the screen.
The book will be available during the celebration of two specialized festivals, from October 25 to November 1, the San Sebastian Week, and from November 8 to 17, the Isla Calavera Festival, and for sale in specialized bookstores. The cover illustrator is Miquel Rof.
In the words of Jonathan Allen and Jesús Palacios: "In the centenary of the death of Franz Kafka, one of the most relevant authors of universal literature and thought, we want to highlight in this small contribution to the extensive corpus of studies on his work the singular, fundamental and foundational importance of the same for the fantastic film genre". "Starting from the purely symbolic, allegorical and surrealist character of Kafka's own work, it builds a singular and powerful model of the fantastic, which has shaped our vision of the universe, as well as our relationship with the real, with fiction and the human condition. And if one genre has felt this powerful influence more than any other, by its very nature and coincidence with Kafka's thought, it is the fantastic," they add.
About the Festival de Cine Fantástico de Canarias Isla Calavera (Skull Island Fantastic Film Festival of the Canary Islands)
Organized by the Cultural Association Charlas de Cine, the Cultural Association Isla Calavera, Multicines Tenerife and the specialized publication TumbaAbierta.com, this eighth edition is sponsored by the City Council of La Laguna, through the Department of Culture, the Cabildo of Tenerife, Promotur, Canary Islands Tourism, Canary Islands Latitud de Vida, Canarias avanza con Europa; the Canary Islands Institute of Cultural Development, Canary Islands Film and Tenerife Film Commission; and the collaboration of the University of La Laguna, La Laguna Zona Comercial, Zulay Panaderías, Playmedusa Videojuegos, Grupo Fly Luxury, Juan Antonio Ribas Subtítulos y Ediciones Digitales, Consejo Regulador de la Denominación de Origen Tacoronte-Acentejo, Mercado Nuestra Señora de África, Cinedfest, Fimucité, CinemaNext, Iro Pictures, Flaming Frames, Teatro Leal, José Acosta Style, Coca-Cola, Royal Bliss and Audi Canarias. Fundación Diario de Avisos, Televisión Canaria and Canarias Radio participate as media partners.
The Festival de Cine Fantástico de Canarias Ciudad de La Laguna Isla Calavera was born in 2017 and in its seven years of trajectory it has achieved an important worldwide repercussion.
In the international arena it has become one of the events to be reckoned with, thanks to the participation of such important figures as John Landis, Joe Dante, Sam J. Jones, Deborah Nadoolman, Sarah Douglas, Rick Baker, Caroline Munro, David Naughton, Enzo G. Castellari, Mick Garris, Neil Marshall, Charlotte Kirk, Nicholas Rowe, Colin Arthur, Jack Taylor and Hollywood stars Amber Heard and Eduardo Noriega, who presented their film 'In the fire' at the national premiere at Isla Calavera.
Other guests who have visited Tenerife as part of the Canary Islands Fantastic Film Festival and who have put the event on the map of film meetings are Belén Rueda, Álex de la Iglesia, Manuela Velasco, F. Javier Gutiérrez, Víctor Clavijo, Silvia Tortosa, Paco Plaza, Carolina Bang, Paco Cabezas, Víctor Matellano, Juanma Bajo Ulloa, Eugenio Mira and Lola Dueñas, among others.
