Fresh
Under the guise of current events, Skolimowski artfully conjures an elemental archetype of human life itself. In English, Polish, and Arabic.
Richard Brody, New Yorker
Essential Killing
Run to live... kill to survive.
2010 · 1h 24m · N/A
Thriller, War
Directed by
Jerzy Skolimowski
Overview
A Taliban soldier struggles to survive after he escapes his captors and flees into the Polish countryside.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
85%
Tomatometer
Fresh
Stripped of its political vestments, 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.
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
Fresh
View it as an existential thriller illustrating how violence begets violence.
Peter Howell, Toronto Star
Fresh
Delivering an absolute minimum of context, the film dares us to forge our own reasons for rooting for or despising this savage.
David Jenkins, Time Out
Fresh
The movie deftly shifts from its initial chase thriller mode to a grueling, offbeat tale of human survival.
Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
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