Peter Mullan

Peter Mullan was born in 1959 in Peterhead, Scotland.

He was interested in film since he was 19. He produced than his first short films.

Next Peter tried to study on the National Film School, however they rejected his application. Peter decided than to become an actor and debuted in the theatre in 1988.

His first leading male role in “My name is Joe” was a real milestone in his career (he played there an alcoholic).

Peter played also in Braveheart, Riff Raff, The Swallow Grave, Fairytale: A True Story and Trainspotting in which he portrayed a drug dealer.

He directed also the film about Scottish teenagers in Glasgow entitled NEDS. Moreover he played there a role of an alcoholic father!

Peter Mullan is a charismatic Scottish actor, who escapes from simple roles in commercial films. In my opinion he is very consistent in what he does and it doesn’t matter if he’s in front or behind the camera. Despite rejecting ‘popular’ cinema his surname is very well-known on the whole world. In his films he presents the real world, doesn’t try to ‘improve’ it and shows things are just the way they are.

Kevin Macdonald

Kevin Macdonald is a Scottish director, actor and screenwriter. He was born in Glasgow in 1967.

Kevin is a grandson of British film maker Emeric Pressburg.

Macdonald’s first film was about his grandfather. At the beginning it was entitled “The Life and Death of the Screenwriter”, however after small changes the title was changed to “The making of an Englishman” (1995).

Kevin created a lot of biographical films such as “Chaplin’s Goliath” (1996), "The Moving World of George Rickey" (1997), "A Brief History of Errol Morris" (2000) and "Being Mick" (2001).

His most successful film was entitled “One day in September”, produced in 1999. It was a documentary film about the murder of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Game in Munich in 1972.  The film’s most important scene is an interview with Jamal Al-Gaszeyem who is the last witness of those events.

Since 1972 Jamal lives in hiding because he believes that Israeli’s government is chasing him for the hijacking.

What’s interesting, the interview with Jamal was recorded in Arabic language. About what was recorded Kevin learned after coming back to London and translating the interview.

The film won the Oscar in 2000 for the best documentary.

In my opinion the director must be really interesting person. Producing only documentary films requires a lot of courage because I think that many people prefer action movies instead of documents. It is harder to create a good documentary than a popular film advertised by movie stars.

I believe that the ‘real cinema’ must be Kevin’s passion.