Review of Essential Killing (2010) by Hunter D — 14 Nov 2010

The movie is a new work of Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski, who is also the author of the script. It is believed that the screenplay was written on the spur of the moment, when Skolimowski heard first time about rumors concerning the illegal CIA bases in Europe.

The plot is quite a simple: a nameless Afghan was captured by American soldiers and afterwards moved to the base located presumably in northern Poland. During this journey an accident happened and the main character managed to escape. The soldiers started to chase him and the Afghan desperately fought against the enemy and merciless environment. Everything appears to be very plain but on the deeper level situation is not so obvious. Who is the major protagonist? Is it a terrorist, soldier or just a local peasant, why he didn't speak a word during the brutal interrogation? The movie is very enigmatic and doesn't give any answers for above-mentioned questions.

Essential Killing is not a typical chase movie or war thriller and the political themes are not exposed. The story is rather concerned on struggle with hostile environment, which give it universal meaning. The refugee is wandering through wilderness, the action is taking place during winter, which means that the main enemies of him was cold and hunger. Because of these extreme conditions the Afghan was reduced almost to the animal relating on basal instincts - fight or flee, this is a question. In order to survive a man is able to do despicable things, thus the main character is no exception. Despite the movie is not very graphic some scenes are disturbing and depressive, the escape immediately turn into torment, exhausted man is hounded by vision, most likely about his past. He started to realize that his life is falling to the end...

This brief description can't depict the specific atmosphere of the movie which is built by the excellent cinematography. The gloomy, austere landscapes create the feeling of solitariness and hopelessness; it is also intensified by minimalistic score. Vincent Gallo gave an outstanding performance; surprisingly he didn't say any word during the movie. It somewhat reminded me The Fight for Fire, where members of Paleolithic tribe also tried to survive in difficult environment and they could sacrifice almost everything to achieve their goal.

The only disadvantages of Essential Killing are an oversimplification of the story and the lack of the dialogues, except of several talks on the beginning. I perfectly realize that since the movie is a metaphor it isn't the most important thing, however in some moments the picture shouldn't be so minimalistic. It makes that some viewers may find it irritating or even tedious.

To conclude, the movie is certainly worth watching. Despite of its simplicity the story is captivating, mainly due to overwhelming atmosphere and great acting.