Essential Killing
2010/ Poland & Norway/ 83 mins/ Dir. Jerzy Skolimowski
Cast: Vincent Gallo, Emmanuelle Seigner, David L. Price
A high-octane chase thriller, Essential Killing eschews the moral and ideological implications of the ‘War on Terror’ instead paring it down to its bare bones, to the issue of survival.
Captured by the US military in Afghanistan, Mohammed (Gallo) is transported to a secret de- tention centre in Europe. When the vehicle he is riding in crashes, he finds himself suddenly free and on the run in a snow-blanketed forest, a world away from the desert home he knew. Relentlessly pursued by an army that does not officially exist, Mohammed must confront the necessity to kill in order to survive. Director Jerzy Skolimowski (The Shout, Moonlighting) creates a dark fantasy which shows that in war and brute, primal survival situations, every man can be both predator and prey.
Award winning Vincent Gallo (Brown Bunny, Buffalo 66, Trouble Every Day) stars as the subject of the chase, producing a daring, enigmatic, entirely wordless performance which won him the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival 2010 where the film was also awarded the Special Jury prize.
‘the film dares us to forge our own reasons for rooting for or despising this savage’
‘Essential Killing is intriguing and disturbing, made with tremendous confidence and conviction’