Irish Feature ESSENTIAL KILLING Wins Three Awards at Venice Festival
ESSENTIAL KILLING, directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, picked up both the Special Jury Prize and the CinemAvvenire Award while lead actor in the film Vincent Gallo scooped the Best Actor award at the 67th Venice International Film Festival which ran from 1st - 11th September.
ESSENTIAL KILLING tells the story of Mohammed (Vincent Gallo), a Taliban fighter who is captured by the US military in Afghanistan, and is transported to a secret military black site somewhere in the Eastern Europe. When the armed convoy he is riding in plummets off a steep hill, Mohammed finds himself suddenly free and on the run behind the enemy lines, among a hostile, snow blanketed forest. Relentlessly pursued by an army that officially does not exist, Mohammed must constantly confront the need to kill in order to survive.
The war thriller is an Irish/Polish/Norwegian/Hungarian co-production between Element Pictures (Garage, The Wind That Shakes The Barley), Skopia Film Production, Cylinder Productions and Mythberg Films with Andrew Lowe the executive producer for Element. The film has recently been selected for screening at both the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival next month.
At the awards ceremony Irish short filmmaker David O'Reilly was chosen as the Venice short film nominee for the European Film Awards, with his short film The External World being selected out of 21 European short films in the Orizzonti competition.
The Venice Film Festival, which had director Quentin Tarantino as president of the International Jury, is one of the oldest festivals in the world and aims to promote all the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms. The festival took place at Venice Lido from 1st - 11th September.