Only 83 minutes!...It seemed like 83 hours.

Jerzy Skolimowski's survival tale benefits from a steady, muted performance by VIncent Gallo.

The story of survival of a man from, what we presume, Afghanistan lost in the middle of the taïga of Siberia. Not a killer by choice, a killer for survival, for the essential. Vincent Gallo is truly a good actor, it is too bad we don't see him enough. Not a must see but a good film.

As purely a visceral thriller it goes well at first but tapers off a bit ineffectually, and the lack of context switches from being a strength, to joining the budget as a limitation. Instead of building some sort of narrative, you flounder around making wilder and ever weaker guesses, until you give up and wait powerless for the inevitable.

Beautiful scenery and I liked the sound effects/texture especially all the small sounds like snow crunching. Made me think about the war on terror from another perspective for a minute. I liked how we got to see everything from this characters POV and came to empathize for him a bit (though I was never routing for him). Makes you wonder about how you might deal with that. I don't know how I would have made out after the messing up my foot. Loved the lack of dialogue

A good film that gives you the first part excitements and ends with scenes of silence while the protagonist struggles.

The noteworthy aspect for me was the feeling given by the visuals and the sound (music). It seemed directed in a late 70´s/80´s style which is always nice.For example the scene where he walks off into the pink sunset.The score is interesting,no traditional music but more of an ambient effect to stress the visuals and the pace of the chase.No story however leaves you empty handed,the whole movie after 20 minutes is literally a chase and nothing more.It does stress the harshness of man vs nature,but that´s no deep well.

Vincent Gallo's performance was electrifying!

With very little narrative to go by this tale of coincidence and happenstance is not very entertaining.

An escaped convict from Afghanistan on a land he does not know..against everyone and everything trying to survive a few more minutes at a time.. Do not expect explosions, the movie's style is more enigmatic and meditative. No words spoken , exceptional powerful and poetic.

Dull, boring, and oddly filmed. Did not hold my attention at all. The scenes were awkward, slow and too long.

una larga y desagradable politica de un terrorista interpretado por vincent gallo que debe de ser odiado intensamente por el director ya que lo mando al desierto y luego descalzo a las monanias nevadas de polonia a que comiera, estiercol, moscas,gusanos, corteza de arboles y leche materna directamente de la fuente para al final matarlo puede ser una alegoria del espiritu humano pero es laarga y muuy aburrida

As there is little dialogue my review will be the same.

Two words you will often read in reviews of this film are "existential" and "thriller". This is probably a good description of the film, although it bears noting that there is almost no dialogue in the entire film. (Which is pretty cool, considering how well it keeps you involved.) The main sticking point is that we are forced to root for the bad guy. No come-uppance? Well, it's an indie.

As an art piece this works really well - Atmospheric, engaging, etc but it's a touch too long and has little story to back up the visuals...watch it on your own, it's not really a 'discuss it at length' afterwards movie.

So. I'm sitting here thinking to myself, how much I loved everything in this movie until the very end. There was so much to like. First, the MAIN CHARACTER IS A TALIBAN! And you root for him! How the fuck?! Awesome idea! 2nd, there is barely any dialogue. AWESOME. Third it is a fugitive, man on the run, movie. ALSO AWESOME. There are a few moments where he gets a bit too lucky. (Where the fuck did that Helicopter go?) And some moments were just plain awkward. (You know it when you see it) But what really knocked this movie down a few notches was the unsatisfying ending. I get how they tied it into his dreams, but it definitely needed more of a bow tie at the end. Great Concept. Solid execution.

it is an essential viewing for all movie lovers. a survival movie delivered with barely any dialogue and only with the help of video and audio effects. amazing work by the director.

Nice filming. Apart from that: no knowledge of lumberjacks. Or horses. Or continuity. Artyfarty with loads of fake blood (mostly unexplained).

complete waste of time

The meditative, subversive and provocative thriller, "Essential Killing," is about the hunt for a suspected terrorist(Vincent Gallo), told almost entirely from his point of view. Except like in real life and the movie, things are not so simple. We first see him in a cave, trembling before killing two American contractors(Zach Cohen & Iftach Ophir) and their escort, who are there off-book and quite possibly involved in drug smuggling, in order to escape. Soon after this, he is captured and processed at an airbase and cleaned up. He is shouted at by an American officer(David Price) and might answer if not for all the ringing in his ears from the explosion. All of which resembles a production line more than anything else.(This is not the only time the movie references "Brave New World" by the way.) Since the waterboarding produces no results, he is shipped with others to Poland. In any case, this makes for a poor first impression. His escape into the snowy wilderness occurs when the army convoy comes across a literal pack of road hogs, causing the truck he is in to go over the side of the road and overturning. At which point, the conflict becomes less man vs. man than man vs. nature, as the former prisoner makes a bid to live off the land like the hunters and fishermen he sees with one extreme example thrown in for good measure.(Considering how much he seems to know about the flora, it would probably come as no surprise that he has done some hunting himself.) At the same time, we get glimpses of a past, happier existence.