Red Spider Crowned by Cairo Critics
Marcin Koszałka’s thriller has won the 2nd edition of Cairo International Film Critics Week, held during the Cairo Film Festival, one of the biggest film events in Africa.
Red Spider competed with six other films, including Journey to Rome by Tomasz Mielnik, Tuk Tuk by Romay Saad, Olmo and the Seagull by Petra Costa and Lea Glob, The Return by Green Zeng, Exotica, Erotica, Etc. by Evangelia Kranioti, and Heavenly Nomad by Mirlan Abdykalykov.
The best feature was chosen by the three members of the jury including Egyptian director Mohamed Khan, Lebanese director Mohamed Rouda and Nigerian critic Shaibu Husseini. It was another award for Marcin Koszałka, who a week beforehand had won the French Critics’ Award at the prestigious International Film Festival in Arras.
Red Spider is the shocking story of a Polish serial killer from the communist 1960s era. The script was inspired by two characters from urban legends. It was based upon two sources. Lucjan Staniak (‘the Red Spider’) is a serial killer from the world of crime literature. In the real world, Karol Kot (known as ‘the Vampire from Kraków’) was one of the youngest serial killers ever and became a media celebrity in the 1960s. Both of these men inspired the filmmakers to create an original, fictional story full of suspense about the nature of crime.
The 2nd edition of Cairo International Film Critics Week also included five classic pearls of Polish cinema. The audience was given the chance to watch Canal and The Promised Land by Andrzej Wajda, Blind Chance by Krzysztof Kieślowski, The Debt by Krzysztof Krauze, and In Darkness by Agnieszka Holland. Łukasz Maciejewski, a renowned film critic, introduced the films to the audience. The Polish film programme was co-organised by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Cairo and the Egyptian-Polish Businessmen Association, and the originator and initiator of the Polish film programme was Tomasz Kania, who has been collborating with the International Film Critics Week for two years.
Source: press release, Culture.pl, edited by BS, translated by ND, 23rd Nov 2015
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