Kafka's parable, reborn in the age of the internet: The "Hunger Artist" is now a young livestreamer who has carved out his niche in the competitive world of fasting content. Hungry for views and desperate to be seen, he signs with an MCN agency and escalates — each stunt wilder, more extreme than the last. He constructs the meaning behind his "art," spinning new reasons to justify what he does, but never gets close to whatever it is he’s truly starving for.

The more he is watched, the more thoroughly he is misread. The more he strains to prove himself, the more he loses track of who he is. In the end, a scandal breaks him — his followers evaporate overnight, and he quietly exits the platform. But the fasting continues. He cannot stop. He goes on starving, in silence and obscurity, all the way to the end.