Jerzy Skolimowski’s “EO”

EO (2022)

Cinematic storytelling of the highest calibre offering a unique and compelling view of the world and humanity through the twisting fate of a donkey

Inspired by Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar, this has a kinder nature while still not flinching from darkness. It is also more spare in speaking parts and tells its story almost entirely visually with sporadic dialogue peppered throughout. Focussing on the unpredictable path of the donkey EO, it is very much a road movie at heart with characters(human and animal) fading in rear view mirror as the next is on the horizon.

To me, the core theme is around the control we have in our lives seen in EO’s servitude and short-lived sprints of freedom. In one significant sequence, EO is passing through an abandoned Jewish cemetery now fading into the forest that has grown around it which chimes with further sequences that echo the atrocities of World War Two. But more frequent (and this is where it parts from Bresson’s work) is kindess.

On other levels, it exposes the hypocrisy and isolation of the modern world while always doing so with exquisite beauty. The cinematography from Michał Dymek and the soundtrack from Paweł Mykietyn are breathtaking.

There’s a lot to digest in this small epic and it’s one that I’ll likely revisit as well as think about for many days to come.