POLISH FILM ACADEMY

Director, screenwriter, playwright. He was born on June 3, 1942, in Krakow. Graduate of Polish Studies at the University of Wrocław, where he also studied art history and participated in student theatre. As a postgraduate student at the Department of Theory of Literature, he published a number of scholarly reviews and essays. In 1967, he made his debut as a writer with a short story titled Zaczerpnąć dłonią/Drawing by Hand, inspired by the death of Zbigniew Cybulski. He was the head of an experimental Open Stage Theatre. In 1972, he completed all the required classes at the Directing Department of the Łódź Film School (diploma with honors in 1977). In the 1970s and early 1980s, he made several films for the Łódź Educational Film Studio, including Lekka tkliwość/Slight Tenderness (1975), Dziwny świat Thomasa Puckeya/The Strange World of Thomas Puckey (1977, a recording of the play by the English performer), Szczęście/Happiness (1980) and Przyczyny narkomanii/Causes of Drug Addiction (1982). He devoted several of his documentaries to great figures of theatre and cinema.

He made his debut in 1984 with a feature film based on his own script Dom wariatów/The House of Fools (award for his directorial debut at the festival in Koszalin), which marks the first appearance of the director's favorite character – Adam Miauczyński. Koterski’s typical protagonist is a representative of the Polish intelligentsia – clumsy, weepy, full of fears, neuroses and grievances. He readily employs grotesque, exaggeration and profanity. The perils of Miauczyński, who is the epitome of the spiritual emptiness of our time and the shallowness of human relations, are depicted in the following films by Koterski: Życie wewnętrzne/The Inner Life (1986, award for best director at the festival in Gdansk), Nic śmiesznego/Nothing Funny (1995), Ajlawju/ILY (1999), Dzień świra/Day of the Wacko (2002) and Wszyscy jesteśmy Chrystusami/We're All Christs (2006). The role of Miauczyński has been portrayed by Marek Kondrat, Wojciech Wysocki (as Michał Miauczynski Życie wewnętrzne/The Inner Life), Cezary Pazura (twice), and once again Marek Kondrat, awarded at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia for the leading male role in Dzień świra/Day of the Wacko. The latter film brought the director the Grand Prix at the festival in Gdynia, where three years later he received best director award for Wszyscy jesteśmy Chrystusami/We're All Christs.

In 1989, he directed a tragicomedy Porno/Porn, which proved a great commercial success. In 2011, he made the film Baby są jakieś inne / Man, Chicks Are Just Different, based on the formula of a road movie and focused on male-female stereotypes.

In the 1990s, he worked occasionally as a writer and director for theatres in Wroclaw, Poznań and Warsaw. His four plays (Dzień świra/Day of the Wacko, Dom wariatów/The House of Fools, inner life and hate) were published in book form (Day of the Wacko, 2002) and nominated for the Nike Literary Award.
He starred in two films as an actor: his own Dom wariatów/The House of Fools and Seszele/The Seychelles (1990, dir. Bogusław Linda) as Dr. Janik. In 2003, he received the Award of the Minister of Culture for his achievements as a filmmaker.

His son, Michał, played the role of Sylwuś, the son of Miauczyński, in his films.