Josef K wakens rudely on the morning of his 30th birthday to find himself under arrest for an unnamed crime. The film pits an incredulous self-righteous individual, his fear and paranoia fuelled by a priest and others, against the absurdist machinations of an institutionalised justice system gone mad. A superbly acted version of Kafka's nightmare set in authentic Prague locations with 1912 period detail, but the result fails to give any new perspective to the work.