Marcin Koszałka – Masterclass

The Masterclass is addressed to those who find a screening alone not enough. It is here that each year the viewer can stand face-to-face with the filmmaker whose productions are presented in the Retrospective section. At SEFF '15 we talked with Józef Robakowski about his works, this year our guest will be a renowned and festival-awarded cinematographer, director, member of the Polish and European Film Academy – Marcin Koszałka. The upcoming Masterclass will be enriched by the screening of “The Red Spider,” the latest of the author's films.

Marcin Koszałka

Cinematographer for many significant works of contemporary Polish cinema, a two-time winner in the category of cinematography at the Festival of Polish Feature Films in Gdynia, winner of the Bronze Frog at Camerimage, has received three Eagle nominations at the Polish Film Awards. Member of the Polish and the European Film Academy. Director of documentary and feature films, which he also writes and edits. Having done two school project films, in 1999 he made his debut as the director of “Such a Nice Boy I Gave Birth To,” a documentary about the relationships within his own family. The film has been awarded at festivals in Berlin, Cracow, and Nyon. Subsequent films by Koszałka have received numerous awards in Karlovy Vary, Chicago, Leipzig, Cracow, Tampere, Teheran, Trento, among other places. His best known films are: “Existence,” “User-Friendly Death,” “All Day Together,” “Till It Hurts,” “Let's Run Away From Her,” “Declaration of Immortality,” and “Lust Killer.” This last documentary, alluding to the story of the serial killer from Bytom, has inspired Koszałka's debut in feature film – the artistic thriller “The Red Spider,” released in 2015.

Czerwony pająk
Marcin Koszałka, PL 2015, COL, 90’

One such legend tells the completely fictional story of the demonic Lucjan Staniak, called the Red Spider, while another is based on the authentic biography of the only teenage serial killer known to criminology: Karol Kot, “the Vampire of Cracow,” who became a real media star in the late 1960s.