Review of Essential Killing (2010) by Rainer K — 15 Jul 2012

I first heard about this flick when I watched last year's European Film Awards where it was nominated for Best Cinematography. I was getting more and more curious when I found out that it was the first film at the Venice Film Festival to ever win two awards (Best Actor and Best Director in this particular case) when head of jury Quentin Tarantino changed the rules because he wanted the honour this extraordinary film.

Vincent Gallo plays a (Taliban?) fighter somewhere in the desert who kills three US soldiers, get caught, imprisoned, tortured and transported to Poland where he can escape thanks to a car accident.

Although I doubt that it's so easy to evade maximum security transportation of the US army it sets up a film which is both thought-provoking (examining the US war policy) as well as an effective on-the-run-type thriller.

It's a tour de force for Gallo (who has never shied away from difficult roles but this one was not only psychological challenging but also physically demanding) as he walks barefoot in the snow, starves and gets wounded on numerous occasions. I'd compare it to The Pianist if you'd ask me just without the Hollywood happy ending and a main character who doesn't say a single word.

The Fugitive gets the art house treatment - a must-see I'd say.