Essential Killing is for hardcore cinema fans, but if you accept its crazy, self-imposed limitations, it becomes a gripping study of how far a man will go to survive in the wilderness. Jerzy Skolimowski’s minimalist film stars the weird and wonderful Vincent Gallo in a near mute performance but for a few grunts. Gallo is a Taleban fighter captured by the Americans and whisked off to Poland under extraordinary rendition. He escapes into brutal-but-beautiful snowy forests, equipped with nothing but guile. The military hunt him with dogs, and he is forced to extreme measures to survive. Many scenes featuring hallucinations, chainsaws and adult breastfeeding are on the queasy side — indeed some cinemagoers ran out during my screening — but there’s a psychotic poetry to the whole affair, and the photography is haunting. Unforgettable, to say the least.
15, 83 mins 4 stars