New movie review: EO

One of six donkeys portraying the title character in EO.

A donkey is many things. It is a beast of burden. It is powerful, stubborn, and curious. It is adorable, yes, but it is also dangerous. It is possessed of an almost singularly unpleasant voice. This unmistakable bray gives the main character of Jerzy Skolimowski’s new film his name: EO. Say it out loud. Now, imitate a donkey. You get it. It’s a joke, but also, it is not. The same could be said of this film, which is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking achievements of the year.

Directly inspired by Robert Bresson’s French New Wave masterpiece Au Hasard Balthazar, though not strictly a remake of that film, EO follows the life of the titular donkey as he wanders aimlessly, though importantly not without thought, from town to town and circumstance to circumstance. Skolimowski has been open about his desire to break with traditional narrative structures and find a nonlinear way to take audiences through a story. This film, co-written by Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska, accomplishes that goal and more.

We meet EO, portrayed by six different donkeys throughout the film, as a circus performer. He has purpose, he has fans, and he has the love of his caring trainer, Kasandra (Sandra Drzymalska). Soon, however, animal rights activists have the circus shut down over the cruelty of using live animals in performance. The activists are the first set of well meaning but shortsighted and misguided humans we meet. They will not be the last.

He is taken to work at a horse stable, the grand opening of which is apparently a big enough deal that local luminaries make speeches and participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Skolimowski observes the horses closely. They are big, muscular, and beautiful. We witness their motion, their freedom. EO’s eyes follow these cousins of his, and he seems to envy them. 

One horse in particular, a gorgeous all-white animal, is given the majority of the workers’ attention. In one telling sequence, it is painstakingly bathed, head to tail, as EO looks on from a nearby stall. EO will not receive this same attention, and we are left to wonder what separates the horse from the donkey. Why is one worthy of our care and consideration and the other condemned to a life of servitude and neglect? EO proves ill-suited to work at the stable, and he is shipped off to a farm in the Polish countryside.

The farm appears to be hard work but not without its rewards. The owners run a side business, making their many donkeys available as therapy animals to disabled children. They play, they hike, they bond, and all the while, EO seems content. This is until one night when Kasandra shows up on the back of a motorcycle. She has brought a carrot cupcake to her former performing partner for his birthday. She can only stay a short while, and when she leaves, EO is inspired to break free from the farm and find her.

Through the rest of the film’s brisk 88-minute runtime, he will dream of her in good times and bad. His memories of the one person to show him real love remind us of ourselves. Are we thinking of EO as humanlike, or are we realizing how much like animals we truly are? What follows will argue the latter through sequences of chaos, randomness, and brutality. 

Skolimowski and cinematographer Michał Dymek obey no rules in giving us a donkey’s-eye view of the world. Lights will flash. We will stare at the ground when the action is above us. The camera will move forward while spinning 360 degrees on the vertical plane. It is disorienting to be in the head of an animal that is unknowable but onto which we are invited to project so much.

As EO wanders through the forest – the film’s most beautiful sequence – a wolf is killed by hunters. A bird is killed by the blades of a wind turbine. Two more instances of well meaning humans wreaking havoc on the animal world. Long stretches of the back half of the film will focus on the cruelty of factory farms and meat consumption. Skolimowski and Piaskowska have both stated that they drastically cut their own meat consumption after working on the film. It is easy to understand why.

To go into further plot specifics is to steal the power of the film, which is best enjoyed as an episodic adventure. It does not matter what happens in any given sequence as much as it matters what the cumulative effect of all these sequences is. There is violence alongside humor alongside tragedy, and it all adds up to the story of a life. Through that life, we are asked to consider our own existence.

Are we doing enough to be kind in this world? Or, are we contributing to the random cruelty and harshness in ways of which we may not even be aware? It is impossible to ignore the importance of the donkey as a Christian symbol, appearing often in the bible as a representation of suffering and humility. As Piaskowska said in an interview, donkeys are innocents. They take our blows because they don’t know any better. They take everything we dish out to them. EO asks us: Must we dish out so much pain? If so, why?

See it? Yes.