New Acquisitions:
Essential Killing Director: Jerzy Skolimowski (2010) Call Number: DVD-V LD11-1029
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Image: Courtesy of Artificial Eye
Winning Gallo the Best Actor prize at the 67th Venice International Film Festival, Essential Killing is about a Muslim man captured in the desert after killing three American soldiers. Tortured in a secret detention center and transported to Poland, the man escapes to find himself in a wintry forest fighting for his survival.
Nearly devoid of dialogue and clarity, “Essential Killing is a chase film almost existential in its rawness and virtually silent in its unfolding -- just a pursued man reduced by circumstance to a primitive state” (Groen, 2011). The film is not easy to like, but allows the viewer observe the conflicting states of the prey and the predator.
Reference:
Groen, Rick. “Essential Killing: A maddening film about man’s madness”. theglobeandmail.com. 31 March.2011.

Image: Courtesy of Artificial Eye
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