Touching the Void

Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the grandson of the Hungarian-born English filmmaker Emeric Pressburger, and educated at Glenalmond College. He began his career with a biography of his grandfather, The Life and Death of a Screenwriter (1994), which he turned into the documentary The Making of an Englishman (1995). His brother Andrew is a film producer. Kevin is a 2nd cousin of comedian Norm Macdonald.

After making a series of biographical documentaries, Macdonald directed One Day in September (1999), about the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Possibly the most striking feature of this film was the lengthy interview with Jamal Al-Gashey, the last known survivor of the Munich terrorists (it has been suggested recently in Aaron Klein’s book Striking Back that another, Mohammed Safady, might also still be alive). Macdonald found Al-Gashey through intermediaries, and was able to convince him that the film would only be truly authentic if Al-Gashey gave his side of the story. Since the former terrorist was convinced that Israeli authorities were still hunting him (he had been in hiding ever since being ransomed for a hijacked airplane less than two months after the Munich massacre), Al-Gashey agreed to the interview only on condition that he would be disguised, his face would be shown only in shadow or blurred out, and that the interview would be conducted by a person and in a place of Al-Gashey’s choosing (which turned out to be Amman, Jordan), although Al-Gashey agreed that Macdonald could be present. Since the interview was conducted entirely in Arabic (even though Al-Gashey was known to be fluent in English, having been interviewed in the language in 1972), and Al-Gashey (through paranoia or annoyance) frequently stormed out of the interview room, Macdonald didn’t know if he had anything usable until he returned to London and hired an Arabic translator. The results spoke for themselves – the film won an Oscar for Best Documentary.

His next film was Touching the Void, which told the story of two climbers’ disastrous attempt to scale the Siula Grande in the Andes in 1985. The film won the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the 20034 BAFTA Awards – coincidentally, it was Korda who had given Macdonald’s grandfather his first job when he had arrived in England in 1935.

He has also directed a number television commercials with the BBC and Rogue Films.

Macdonald is to direct the film adaptation of hit BBC television drama State of Play, which will star Russell Crowe and is scheduled to begin filming in January 2008.¹ His next project after State of Play will be Bobby Fischer Goes to War, a film about the 1972 World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland, in which Bobby Fischer took on the entire Soviet chess establishment. ²

In 1999 he married Tatiana Lund, with whom he has three sons and lives in North London.
—http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Macdonald_(director)