Essential Killing by the Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski is among the 23 films running for awards at the 67th Venice Film Festival, the world's oldest event of its kind, opening tomorrow. 

A political thriller starring Vincent Gallo and Emmanuelle Seigner, it  is the story of a Taliban fighter Mohammed, who is taken prisoner by Americans for killing three US soldiers. During his transfer through Eastern Europe the convict escapes and embarks on a bloody fight for survival. 

The last time a Polish feature won the Golden Lion at the Venice Festival was 1993 (Krzysztof Kieślowski for Three Colours: Blue).

Seventy two year-old Skolimowski is among the veterans of Polish cinema. He graduated from the Faculty of Ethnography at Warsaw University and from the Lodz Film School. His early films – Identification Mark, Barrier, Walkover and Hands Up – represented the so-called ‘new wave’ in Polish film. 

The 1967 feature Hands Up was banned by communist censorship and did not go on general release until the Solidarity revolution in 1981, the controversy surrounding the film becoming one of the reasons behind Skolimowski’s decision to emigrate.  Since 1970, he has worked in Italy, France, Britain and the United States.  Le Depart, made in Belgium in 1967 and awarded the Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival, skyrocketed Skolimowski to international fame. Three of his films were awarded at the Cannes Festival (The Shout won a Jury Prize in 1978, Moonlighting – Best Screenplay Award in 1982 and The Lightship a Special Jury Prize in 1985).

His credits also include The Deep End and 30 Door Key. He returned to film-making two years ago, after a lapse of seventeen years, with a highly successful Four Nights with Ann. (mk)