Day by day

Essential Killing

Poland/Norway/Irland/Hungary // 2010 // Couleur // 83'
Englis/Arabic/Polish with French subtitles

Swiss première

War, somewhere, maybe Afghanistan. American forces capture a djellaba-clad warrior and torture him. During a transfer, he manages to escape. A pitiless manhunt ensues, in another unknown location, in a Siberian landscape.
A major figure in Polish cinema, Jerzy Skolimowski signs a powerful piece of work halfway between war film and hypnotic fairytale. A black diamond, the elegant shooting is almost entirely stripped of dialogue – as if words were of no further use in this ferocious hunt in which violence leads to violence and survival to murder.
One thing is certain: the absence of words makes us identify with the fugitive, who could be anyone, our brother or even ourselves. Vincent Gallo plays this persecuted being with subtlety and a magnetic force that earned him the Prize for Best Actor at the 67th Venice Mostra.

Jerzy Skolimowski