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As this interesting drama wends its way through a state bureaucracy filled with a broad spectrum of characters all trying to protect their turf, it alludes to the writer Franz Kafka's views on governmental mazes and the nature of an unwanted physical transformation. Young Franz (Robert Hines) breaks out in a rash and goes to the insurance company to get the means to find out what is happening (he works with textile dyes and suspects a connection there). Instead of being helpful, the bureaucrats dismiss him until a certain Mr. Kafka (Daniel Day-Lewis) advances his own theories as to Franz's problem. Much later down the road, yet another possibility is ironically provided.