Essential Killing
Sep 10, 2011
(Jerzy Skolimowski, 2010, Poland/Norway/Ireland/Hungary, 35mm, 83 min)
In the second film since his 17-year hiatus, Skolimowski takes a decidedly more frenetic. Essential Killing explores violence in the context of war, pitting an unusually silent Vincent Gallo (as escaped POW Mohammed) against a harsh winter in an unidentified European mountain range. Eschewing geopolitics, the film instead highlights the eternal question of what one human can—or should—do to survive. Gallo’s wordless performance earned him top honors at the film’s debut in Venice, where Essential Killing also won the Special Jury Prize, the first time one film has taken two major awards from the festival. After 83 minutes spent with Skolimowski’s relentless, brutal examination of isolated desperation, it is easy to see why.
“It’s a savage film. It plays on our notions of good and evil.”—David Jenkins, Time Out London