Fiction

ESSENTIAL KILLING

Jerzy Skolimowski
PL, N, IRL, H 2010
83 min
V'10

A Taliban fighter is captured, interrogated, tortured and then transported to an unnamed destination in Europe. Taking advantage of an accident, he escapes and has to use all his wits to evade his pursuers whilst battling bitter winter cold, and lack of food. After making his escape in a moment of confusion, Essential Killing follows his trek into the snow-clad forests, pursued by helicopters, soldiers and dogs. Jerzy Skolimowski follows the grim, often surprising and occasionally hallucinatory adventures of a man who refuses to die or give up. It could well be a parable of what NATO is confronting in the grim struggle for Afghanistan.
Skolimowski’s visual imagination is stretched to the fullest, with the sheer magnificence of the landscape providing a beautiful, silent backdrop to the character’s heroic battle to stay alive. In a harrowing performance that must have been immensely physically demanding role, Vincent Gallo conveys reservoirs of courage and determination without uttering a single word. (Piers Handling)

Credits
  • Vincent Gallo
  • Emmanuelle Seigner
  • Stig Frode Henriksen
  • Nicolai Cleve Broch
  • Jerzy Skolimowski
  • Ewa Piaskowska
  • Adam Sikora
  • Robert Flanagan
  • Réka Lemhényi
  • Pawel Mykietyn
  • Joanna Kaczynska
  • Anne Hamre
Skopia Film Cylinder Productions, Element Pictures, Mythberg Films, Canal & Cyfrowy, Syrena Films

Han Way Films

DCP
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