"Essential Killing" is possibly about the so-called War on Terrorism. The film opens on a dry treeless landscape riddled with ravines and with mountains in the distance, though no clue as to where it is actually given. It is very hot. It looks to be Afghanistan – but it could easily be Iraq, for that matter. The protagonist is a fighter for the Taliban – or is he? He becomes trapped in a cave, fearful of being discovered by three soldiers on a routine patrol. If they find him, he's done for. Are the soldiers American? Well, one of them definitely is. We can hear the sound of a helicopter nearby. Attuned to the slightest noise, the soldiers sense the presence of the fighter, but they are not quite sure. When they go to investigate, all hell breaks loose. The Taliban fighter makes a dash for freedom, but is finally caught. And like any captive, he is shackled and carted off to a camp along with other suspects the soldiers have taken prisoner. The camp is chillingly like Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay. Even the methods his captors use to carry out interrogating prisoners, seems to be modeled on the methods used at Camp X-Ray. After searching him and shaving off his hair, he is manacled, made to wear on orange jump suit, and a black hood, which they keep putting on and off. Then the interrogation begins. They ask questions, beat and abuse him before asking the same questions over and over again. They deprive him of sleep then beat him some more. They threaten to set the dogs on him. Then his interrogators strap him down and he undergoes water boarding - shades of the infamous Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad. Throughout all this the prisoner remains mute. Is he just acting dumb? Does he understand what his captors are saying? Is he a deaf mute? Eventually, along with the other prisoners, he is put on a plane to an undisclosed destination. Through a freak accident, he manages to escape. It's obvious he is not now in the desert. Every way he turns, all he sees is a landscape of snow and trees. He has no food; his clothing offers little protection against the bitter cold. On top of that he immediately realises that he is ill prepared to try and outrun an adversary who is better equipped militarily, better fed and ready perhaps to shoot him on sight. "Essential Killing' is like no other film dealing with the privations, the stress and utter futility of war. Certainly other film directors have made films about the Global War on Terrorism, from the excellent documentary "Taxi To The Dark Side", to that puerile paean to patriotism, "Saving Jessica Lynch." Ultimately, Skolimowski's film: "Essential Killing" is about one thing, the pressure of surviving in a terrain that is as alien to the prisoner as it is forbidding. That the film succeeds is on no small part due to the performance of actor Vincent Gallo. He is in practically every scene. He doesn't speak a single word of dialogue. Instead, he has to convey what is happening around him by his actions alone. No easy task. The tension is racked up several notches when his foot gets caught in an animal-trap. To cry out, would give away his position – even as we can see he's in terrible pain. In the distance he can hear dogs baying. Now, minus one shoe, he has to run barefoot in the snow, or risk getting caught, – illustrating just how cold the actor must have been on this shoot. That Vincent Gallo coped is a tribute to his dedication as an actor. Most actors, after reading the script, would probably run a mile. If Vincent Gallo did it rough, then so did the other actors, and, of course, the crew who braved these freezing conditions. The temperature on the ground was minus 35 Celsius. That's about the average winter temperature in Antarctica. The DOP, Adam Sikora, who also shot "Four Nights With Anna", deserves to be singled out for his stunning photography. In this environment it is suffering for one's art, indeed. Even though Mr. Skolimowski has gone on record to say that he will never shoot another film in such cold conditions, I'm glad he did this one. And so were the audience at the screening I attended. They broke into spontaneous applause as the end credits started to roll.
Review of Essential Killing
