EO is a beautiful tale about a donkey
Cast: Hola, Tako, Marietta, Ettore, Rocco, Mela,
Isabelle Huppert
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Duration: 1h 26 m
Available: EO is now playing in theatres in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary
and Edmonton
Cinematically speaking, donkeys tend to arrive two by two. In 2017, the Spanish road movie Donkeyote hit theatres alongside the donkumentary Do Donkeys Act?, narrated by Willem Dafoe. Before that we have to go back to 1966, when Robert Bresson made his donkey-themed masterpiece Au Hasard Balthazar, while Eeyore co-starred in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.
First up, the wonderful dark comedy The Banshees of Inisherin features a supporting turn by a miniature donkey named Jenny, upstaging Colin Farrell every chance she gets.
Then there’s EO — bray it, don’t say it! — from Polish director and co-writer Jerzy Skolimowski. A loose retelling of Bresson’s film, it places the titular beast front and centre, beginning with it performing in a circus.
EO doesn’t look unhappy with his lot, though to be fair, his face shows little in the way of strong emotions. Nevertheless, he is rescued by animal-rights activists and finds himself out in the world. EO witnesses and is at times on the receiving end of man’s inhumanity to beasts, though it would be a lesser film if the lesson began and ended there. He sees hunters at night taking aim at foxes and wolves, winds up (briefly) en route to a sausage factory, and sees a bird killed by a windmill blade.
Through the film, EO stumbles into the scenes of others’ misfortunes. In one of the more disturbing chapters, he is adopted by rowdy soccer fans, then chased and attacked by fans of the rival team for the crime of being their mascot.
EO was played by six different donkeys, and the filmmakers note in the closing credits that the animals’ welfare was always their top concern. The character is real in the way that only animals can be — please, Hollywood, do not consider an English-language remake starring Terry Notary in a motion-capture suit — and EO has been forwarded by Poland as the country’s best international feature Oscar hopeful. Regardless if it wins, it’s a beautiful tale that deserves a look. I was happy to ride along. ★★★★