Review of Essential Killing (2010) by Adi U — 14 Mar 2011

Taken out of context this would be a film about a man running through a forest. Put in context again and you have a story of a generic middle east detainee - caught under suspicion of-, water-boarded, wrapped up and sent to one of those mythical us detention facilities.

Just that he didn't make it there and escaped in some rather improbable circumstances. The director stripped his creation of everything you'd expect in a movie with such storyline, like dialogs, even one-liners, suspense, gunfight, logic and so on.

What's left it a very graphic depiction of our generic hero suffering and some really beautifully scenery. The description read it's a movie about a political prisoner, but to be hones there's little evidence in the plot, or what passes off as plot in this movie, about the-running-away-protagonist.

Few flashbacks is all there is serve as background. Would be a great short film, but for some reason it was made into a full feature. In addition to all of this there's a scene with a bare nipple in broad daylight, so the movie probably won't sit well with the US audience.

Though it will probably get or already got some awards in Europe. To sum up, I liked the idea, but not the execution. I just didn't get it. At all.