Irish Victories at Venice Film Festival | The Irish Film & Television Network

An Irish/Polish/Norwegian/Hungarian co-production, ‘Essential Killing’ is a provocative thriller that tells the story of an Afghan man, captured by American forces in Kabul, who finds himself transported to a nameless European country. He manages to escape into the vast frozen woodland, a world away from the desert home he knew. Forced into extreme survival mode, he must kill anyone who strays into his path. The film won the Venice Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize and the CinemaAvvenire Award whilst the film’s star, Vincent Gallo won the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor for his role.

The film, directed by veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski (Moonlighting), and starring Vincent Gallo and Emmanuelle Seigner (La Vie en Rose), had its world premiere screening at the 67th instalment of the Venetian event and will screen this week as part of the Masters programme in Toronto Film Festival. Irish audiences will get an opportunity to see ‘Essential Killing’ in cinemas when it goes on theatrical release later this year through Element Pictures Distribution.

Further Irish success comes with the news that the festival’s jury, after viewing the 21 European short films in the Orizzonti competition, decided on ‘The External World’ from David O’Reilly (Please Say Something) as the Venice Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards. The short centres around a little boy learning how to play the piano. It was directed by David who co-wrote it with Vernon Chatman (Jackass: The Movie) and co-produced it with Henning Kamm (Father, Son and Holy Cow). The music for the short is composed by Brian Meindersma (4 Elements).

A full list of winners is available here: www.labiennale.org

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