A high-octane chase thriller, Essential Killing creates a dark fantasy which shows that in war and brute, primal survival situations, every man can be both predator and prey. Captured by the US military in Afghanistan, Mohammed is transported to a secret detention centre in Europe. When the vehicle he is riding in crashes, he finds himself suddenly free and on the run in a snow-blanketed forest, a world away from the desert home he knew. Relentlessly pursued by an army that does not officially exist, Mohammed must confront the necessity to kill in order to survive. Vincent Gallo (Brown Bunny, Buffalo 66) stars as the subject of the chase, producing a daring, enigmatic, entirely wordless performance which won him the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival 2010 where the film was also awarded the Special Jury prize.
