ESSENTIAL KILLING stalks into a cinema near you!

Element Pictures co-production, Essential Killing will receive its theatrical release on Friday, April 1st. Directed by veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski (Moonlighting), Essential Killing tells the story of an Afghan man, played by Vincent Gallo (Buffalo ‘66) who captured by American forces in Kabul, who finds himself transported to a nameless European country. He manages to escape into the vast frozen woodland and is forced into extreme survival mode where he must kill anyone who strays into his path.

As one of its first international screenings, the film was invited to screen at the 2010 Palm Springs Film Festival.

The feature has enjoyed a lot of international success, including three awards at the 67th Venice Film Festival including the event’s Special Jury Prize; the CinemaAvvenire Award and the Coppa Volpi prize for its lead actor, Vincent Gallo. The film scooped four more awards at the Polish Film Academy's 13th annual Polish Film Awards in March 2011.

The feature came away from the event with the top prizes in the categories of Best Film; Best Director for Jerzy Skolimowski; Best Music for Pawel Mykietyn (Stranger) and Best Editing for Reka Lemenhenyi (Taxidermia) and Maciej Pawlinski (Ode to Joy).

In 2011 Essential Killing received an IFTA Sound nomination for the team of Robert Flanagan, Michelle Cunniffe and Fiadhnait McCann.

IFTA Member Barbara Conway oversaw the make-up effects in Essential Killing. The make-up artist has been nominated twice for IFTA awards – once in 2010, alongside Eileen Buggy for Zonad and again in 2004 for The Halo Effect in partnership with Terry Ralph.

Essential Killing's Irish producer is IFTA member Andrew Lowe (The Wind that Shakes the Barley). Tribeca Film, the distribution branch of the Tribeca Film Festival has signed on to distribute the feature in the U.S., making Essential Killing the 13th title to have been taken on by the distribution group. Tribeca Film has signed on to distribute the feature in the U.S.

The film will receive a theatrical release on Friday, April 1st in Dublin’s Cineworld and the IFI. Element Pictures Distribution tells us the film will also be released in Cork, Galway and Sligo in the coming weeks. For film times please see local press.

IFTN

“With a film like 'Essential Killing' there is never a moment where you pull back on the effects.”
Fiadhnait McCann

Check out a recent IFTN Interview with nominated Sound Supervising Editor Fiadhnait McCann - read it here

MORE ON ESSENTAIL KILLING

View a selection of excerpts from Essential Killing - get clip