Joel Basman

Biography

Joel Basman (born in Zurich in 1990) is a Swiss-Israeli actor best known for playing Franz Kafka in the ARD miniseries Kafka (2024). His work spans film and television, with Swiss, German and international productions.

He grew up in the Aussersihl neighbourhood of Zurich, bilingual in Swiss German and Hebrew, the son of a Swiss Christian mother and an Israeli-Jewish father, both tailors in the Swiss fashion trade. He started acting in 2004 in the soap Lüthi und Blanc, and in 2007 director Tobias Ineichen gave him the lead in Jimmie, playing an autistic boy. In 2008 he won the Shooting Star award for Luftibus and the Swiss Television Prize in the film category, and that same year he completed his studies at the European Film Actor School.

His filmography includes Hanna, Kursk, Papillon and The King's Man, alongside European titles such as As We Were Dreaming and Bye Bye Germany. In 2018 he led The Awakening of Motti Wolkenbruch, which Netflix picked up. His legacy sits between European art cinema and large international productions, and his portrayal of Kafka brought him wider recognition beyond Switzerland.

Key films

• Hanna (2011), action thriller directed by Joe Wright, in which Basman is part of the cast.
• Kursk (2018), war drama about the sinking of the Russian submarine, in which he appears in the cast.
• Papillon (2017), a new adaptation of the prison escape story.
• The Awakening of Motti Wolkenbruch (2018), a dramedy in which he leads the cast, picked up by Netflix.
• Bye Bye Germany (2017), a film depicting Jewish emigration in postwar Germany.