Marcin Koszałka
| Marcin Koszałka | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
30 December 1970 Kraków, Poland |
| Occupation | Film director, cinematographer |
| Years active | 1999–present |
Marcin Koszałka (born 30 December 1970) is a Polish cinematographer and film director.
In 1995 he began his studies at the Picture Realisation at Krzysztof Kieślowski Faculty of Radio and Television, University of Silesia in Katowice, from which he graduated in 2001. In 2014 for his work entitled "Obsession with death in images of my documentaries" he obtained a doctorate degree in film studies and is now a lecturer in this university. He is the author of cinematography for many significant works of contemporary Polish cinema and a member of the Polish and European Film Academy . He is also a director of documentaries and feature films, for which he writes scripts and is involved in the editing process. His auteur films have a unique style and often touch on issues close to his heart. His cinematography in films of his colleagues is characterized by maturity and elegance that are visible in each shot and by his artistic attention to detail. It is no coincidence that most prominent authors of Polish cinema want to collaborate with him.
Despite his cinematographic education, since the beginning of his career Marcin Koszałka has been fighting to avoid being pigeonholed and working only as a cinematographer. In 1999, after making two short films, he made his debut as a director with Such a Nice Boy I Gave Birth to, a document focused on relations within his own family. The film was received enthusiastically in Poland and abroad, bringing him awards in Berlin, Cracow, Kazimierz Dolny and Nyon. In this movie Marcin Koszałka concentrates on the story of his own family, which caused quite a stir and controversy among Polish documentalists and subjected Koszałka to criticism from senior colleagues, who quite differently perceived a place of documentary movies in Polish cinema. Since then, Marcin Koszałka has been one of the most important Polish documentary filmmakers of his generation.
After this strong debut he has made other no less appreciated movies, like: It Will Be All Right, Death with a Human Face, Whole Day Together (dedicated to Jerzy Nowak), The Existence, Till it Hurts, Let’s Run Away from Her (dedicated to Piotr Korczak, a prominent Polish climber) The Declaration of Immortality, You'll Be a Legend, Man (a movie about Polish footballers preparing for UEFA Euro 2012), The Lust Killer. The latter document, which indirectly tells the story of a serial killer from Bytom, led Koszałka to a directorial debut in a feature film. That is how The Red Spider, an artistic thriller, was created. It was met with a warm reception at festivals in Karlovy Vary, Arras, Cairo. After the release in Poland it was highly acclaimed by critics, film industry and audience yearning for a successful artistic cinema, with some stylistic features indicating a genre affiliation. It is a story of a serial killer operating in Poland in the 1960s, inspired only by real events and legends which have been circulating for many years around Cracow and rest of the country. Marcin Koszałka not only directed the movie but also wrote the script to it, did the cinematography and editing. He had a full artistic control over his feature film directorial debut.
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