Boredom personified. As an Afghan prisoner who escapes when the vehicle in which he is traveling crashes, Vincent Gallo, in a totally wordless performance, is excellent, (Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival), but Jerzy Skolimowski's picture "Essential Killing" goes nowhere very, very slowly. Skolimowski brings a documentary-like fidelity to the material that might be admirable in another context as Gallo is pursued through the inhospitable terrain by his mostly faceless and nameless enemies. It's fairly grim stuff; the 'essential killing' of the title is what Gallo is forced to do in order to survive but this isn't "The Revenant" and as man-in-the-wilderness movies go it has little to recommend it.

It's so boring and predictable that it _almost_ becomes funny. There is no dialogue. There is no deeper understanding to be gained. It's the story you will experience by buying vodka for your last money and getting wasted in a foreign neighborhood. Except you probably won't kill anybody and I don't see any justification for that.I don't know what it is supposed to convey. It's sick fantasy and that the snowy valley turns out to be Poland at the end just confirms that the crew had no idea about the world. Save your money. If you want some Western Culture self-hate you can buy vodka and drink by yourself. At least you won't bother anyone.

Plot: A man is captured in the desert by United States forces after attacking three soldiers, 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.If you are expecting a Hollywood kind of movie you will be disappointed. This polish films is more about the inner struggle to survive in a hostile environment, and how the human is conditioned to survive and will fight to the end not only to survive but most important to be free.This movie has a lot of the same basis as The Grey, the main difference is that the backdrop story is different, but the aspect of survival, is there, this one also adds the aspect of freedom as a goal that drives survival.

"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.