Director: Jerry Skolimowski
Script: Ewa Piaskowska & Jerry Skolimowski
Cast: Sandra Drzymalska, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, Isabelle Huppert and Holo, Tako, Marietta, Ettore, Rocco, & Mela (the donkeys)
Running time: 88 minutes
Year: 2022
Certificate: 15
Eo is the story, such that it is, of a small donkey of the same name, who we initially see as a circus performer being very lovingly cared for by his young female trainer, Kasandra (Sandra Drzymalska), although he’s despised by the cruel ring master, who whips him. Due to animal protestors the authorities come and remove all of the circus animals, but during the journey EO manages to escape, heading off to what he hopes, at least, are greener pastures. What follows is Eo’s odyssey whereby Eo encounters all kinds of people (both good and bad), other animals, and various conditions, perils and experiences as he trots across, or is moved across, Europe (well, definitely Poland and Italy anyway).
One encounter sees the donkey stabled near a white horse, that’s the star of a photo shoot. Eo doesn’t like the atmosphere at these stables so deliberately pulls his cart into a cabinet, knocking it over. He’s then transferred to some kind of alternative stables full of donkeys, but this doesn’t last for long and he’s soon very nearly causing a road traffic accident, while another adventure has him avoiding a poacher. We, of course, experience these adventures with him and sense his unease with certain situations and his pleasure during others.
Visually Eo is often an arresting and interesting film to watch. The director clearly likes playing with light and shade, interspersed with bright flashing lights. Not to all tastes, but that ‘look’ sometimes works here. And, since there’s very little dialogue in the film, visuals are very important, and we see plenty of interesting, lush backdrops. The score, by Pawel Mykiotyna, is also very important, and Pawel’s borders on being experimental at times and is often quite ‘industrial’ in nature; having said that, the soundtrack pivots from classical one minute to electronic the next, so the overall style is difficult to pin down.
Watching a film like this, as with any that are focused on a live animal can, and often does, give the viewer a low-level sense of anxiety throughout, most probably reflecting an underlying concern that something unpleasant might happen to the innocent and gentle beast that we’re investing our time in. It has to be said that Eo does witness some unpleasant things on his travels, but, for the most part, is not a victim of events, merely an observer of such things. Although the ending is open to interpretation, it doesn’t seem to be a happy one for little Eo, but I could be wrong as the director explained in an interview that the travelogue is a non-linear one, which might mean that Eo will be fine…I think that, in this case at least, it’s the journey that’s important, not the destination.
Overall, even if you don’t really appreciate the rather slight story that Eo tries to convey, Skolimowski still has an impressive eye for framing his shots so it’s still worth a watch for the visuals alone. Sadly, the human characters are the weakest element in the film, and when, finally, Skolimowski does allow some human drama to spin into the scenario he does little with it; for example, the priest returning back to his previous life, but it’s not sure whether the Countess (played by Isabelle Huppert) who he visits is his mother, lover, or maybe a bit of both! We never really find out as Eo moves on to other pastures.
I’m not quite sure what kinds of audience the film is aimed at. Clearly Skolimowski is more art-house than mainstream and Eo reflects this kind of sensibility. However, even some patrons of art-house cinemas may struggle to get to grips with a film that’s basically just about a donkey getting on with its life, in all its many shapes and forms.
Eo is being distributed by BFI on Blu-ray. There are a number of extras on the disc including:
Jerry Skolimowski and co-writer Ewa Piaskowska on the making of Eo (27 mins) – An interesting interview conducted at the New York Film Festival in November 2022. The director’s English is actually quite good and he reveals that his co-writer is also his wife. He shares his current view that he finds the old ways of filming “boring, boring, boring”, hence being much more experimental here. He talks a bit about his own history of filmmaking and tells the audience he likes working with animals as they only ‘speak the truth’. Apparently he cut his meat consumption by 2/3 after the shoot!
Skolimowski: An A to Z (98 mins) – Writer Michael Brooke takes us on an alphabetical journey through the life and works of the director. Sadly, this sounds a bit too much like he’s reading from a script, but he’s clearly very knowledgeable about his subject and we learn that Jerry’s mum brought him up single-handedly after the war and that he used to be an amateur boxer in his youth.
UK Teaser trailer (1.45 mins) – We learn that this was Poland’s official entry into Cannes
Three other teaser trailers (all around 15 secs) – one just focuses on Eo’s eyes
High Rise Donkey (56 mins) – a not-so-short film about three kids who stable a donkey in a high-rise flat to save its life.
A clown and his donkey (3.5 mins) – A 1910 silhouette animation short by Charles Armstrong that depicts a clown doing tricks with his donkey.
