Essential Killing

I have read reviews of this film, and several critics have criticised this film for not being what it never set out to be. The film shows a pursuit, pure and simple, and it is very gripping.

The pursued man is played by Vincent Gallo. He is an Arab, mixed up in a conflict with the American army in an Arab country. At the beginning of the film he blows up some Americans in the desert. The Americans chase him with helicopters and catch him. They put him in an orange suit, hood him and torture him. He is transported to a Northern European country and escapes, finding himself being pursued in a cold, snow-covered landscape. He is desperate and does all he can to try to survive. That is the film. Gallo has no lines; he never speaks.

The film is made by Jerzy Skolimowski and it was shot in Poland, Norway and the Yemen, I think. It does a very good job of keeping one on the edge of one's seat and in communicating the desperation of the man's situation. It is interesting that the Guantanamo-like circumstances he finds himself in at the beginning of the film are now a part of our imaginative landscape. This lends the film a certain topicality and and a political edge.

I saw this film at the London Film Festival and it was introduced by Skolimowski. He said "Twenty years ago I came to London and said to the audience 'Thank you very much for coming here today to see my worst film.' Tonight I thank you for coming here to see my best film."

Vincent Gallo worked hard and gives a persuasive performance, seeming to go through hell, slithering and sliding in snow, and suffering many setbacks. We are taken through some stunning landscape both at the beginning in the desert and in snowscapes.