Essential Killing
| Essential Killing | |
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Polish theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Jerzy Skolimowski |
| Produced by |
Jeremy Thomas Ewa Piaskowska Jerzy Skolimowski |
| Written by | Jerzy Skolimowski Ewa Piaskowska James McManus |
| Starring |
Vincent Gallo Emmanuelle Seigner |
| Music by | Paweł Mykietyn |
| Cinematography | Adam Sikora |
| Edited by | Maciej Pawliński |
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Production
company |
Skopia Film
Cylinder Production Element Pictures Mythberg Films Canal+ Poland Syrena Films Akson Studio Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej (as The Polish Film Institute) Bórd Scannán na hÉireann (The Irish Film Board) Norsk Filminstitutt (as The Norwegian Film Institute) Magyar Mozgókép Kozalapítvány (as Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary) Eurimages |
| Distributed by | Syrena Films (2010, Poland) |
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Release date
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Running time
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83 minutes |
| Country | Poland Norway Ireland Hungary |
| Language | English Polish Arabic |
Essential Killing is a 2010 Polish survival political thriller film co-written and directed by Jerzy Skolimowski and starring Vincent Gallo and Emmanuelle Seigner.
A civilian arab man is captured in the desert by United States forces after attacking three soldiers in Afghanistan, and is soon tortured and brutalized in a secret detention center. He finds himself transported to Poland, along with other prisoners. He manages to escape into the vast frozen woodland, a world away from the home he knew. In order to survive he kills some of those who stray into his path and forages for food both from nature and from those he encounters. A woman gives him shelter, treats his wounds and feeds him before sending him back out into the wilderness. He departs on a white horse and, as the first shoots of spring are seen through the snow, appears to die.
Essential Killing was shot in Israel, Poland and Norway from December 2009 through to February 2010. The film saw Jerzy Skolimowski reunite with Jeremy Thomas, who previously produced his feature The Shout in 1978, which went on to win the Grand Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival.
Skolimowski had been searching to replicate the conditions of his previous film, Four Nights with Anna, most of which was filmed near his home in the Polish Masurian forests. He had heard of rumored (and later revealed) CIA use of the nearby Szymany Airfield for flights carrying prisoners from the Mid-East. Subsequently, Skolimowski skidded off the road during winter while driving a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Noticing he was two kilometers from Szymany, it occurred to him that the same could easily happen to a prisoner transport and, from this, he found the initial inspiration for the Essential Killing scenario. He shared a draft script with Jeremy Thomas who encouraged him to think beyond the modest local production Skolimowski had initially envisioned and the project grew, with Thomas as an executive producer, into a multi-national coproduction made under challenging circumstances:
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