Here is a movie with animals that is neither intended nor recommended for children to watch. A strange film in its own strange way. It received the Jury Prize in the official competition at Cannes, at the 2022 edition – an award that should be a guarantee that we will see an interesting and well-made film. ‘EO‘ by veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski is interesting at many points. The idea is quite original, although the film has an illustrious predecessor in Robert Bresson‘s ‘Au hazard, Balthazar‘ from 1966, to which it seems to pay an overdue homage. The contemporary story, however, failed to convince me.
The main hero is a donkey named EO. Donkeys don’t have a very good reputation in the animal kingdom. They are the poor and clumsy cousins of horses, they lack their elegance and sex-appeal, they are used for heavy work and they are said to have a difficult character due to their stubbornness. Our EO looks at the world with sad eyes, is eternally persecuted and suffers violence from the surrounding animals but especially from humans. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have feelings. On the contrary, he is ready to face dangers to find Kasandra, the circus trainer who had cared for him and treated him … well … humanely. But the world around is full of dangers and the search will not yield good results.
‘EO‘ seems to be more of a reverence for the more than 50 years of creative activity of Jerzy Skolimowski, but it is somehow, below the quality bar of important awards at one of the great festivals of international cinema. It’s not a bad movie, but the idea and the way the cinematic techniques are applied to the story (or non-story) don’t quite connect in my opinion. The film starts out as a kind of political farce combined with an animals melodrama for children, but from we soon realize that it does not resemble a Disney production at all. The writers and the director seem to be telling us that both the animal and human worlds are evil and full of dangers. In them, those who look different and do not meet the criteria of beauty and adaptability will have a hard time in surviving. Pawel Mykietyn‘s soundtrack is excellent. There were several memorable scenes among which the one of the first night spent in the wild and full of threats forest seemed to me the best. Others, however, seemed to me gratuitous and unassimilated in the context – for example the one with the robot dog or the spectacular crossing of the suspension bridge. The sequences with human characters don’t seem to have a common thread or idea either. A few of them talk about Polish society today and are OK, from EO’s philosophical – ironic, let’s say, perspective. But the one featuring the formidable Isabelle Huppert seems to refer to the Italian nobility. What is her place in the film I have not been able to understand.
The great filmmakers, who have reached the age when they can do almost anything that comes to their mind, because they are no longer obliged to prove anything to anyone, sometimes make special films, not to say a little strange ones. Such is the case with ‘EO‘ as well, and I have nothing against, but such films, in my opinion, do not need aeards in official competitions. Special honorary awards are given for the entire career. The Jury Prize at a festival like Cannes should have gone to a different kind of film. Of course, this is just my opinion.