Kafka: Season 1, Episode 4

1 - 4: Das Büro

The fourth episode shows Kafka in his professional world as an insurance lawyer. He is a well-known expert in the field, wins almost every court case on behalf of the insurance company and is highly respected by his superiors - an honor he does not reciprocate. For him, the rather comfortable workplace is a living hell from which he just wants to escape. At the height of the First World War, his superiors go so far as to save Kafka's life by officially declaring him indispensable, thus saving him from being drafted. This episode highlights the reversal of Kafka's nightmarish fear of an overwhelming bureaucratic force that he highlights so well in his works, for Kafka's superiors are by no means unreachable: they are friendly and helpful - a fact that Kafka never acknowledges or admits.