“Eo” means “hi-han” in Polish. It is also the name of the hero and the title of the new film by Jerzy Skolimowski. Winner of the Cannes Jury Prize in 2022, Eo combines originality, cruelty and tenderness around this cute donkey with long silky ears and eyes filled with melancholy.
“I think his cries mean something: Look at me, I’m a living being like you. Like you, I need love, care and security. Why do you despise me? Why do you treat me like an object? “, explained Jerzy Skolimowski in Cannes. The director rememberedRandom balthazar (1965) by Robert Bresson, a tragedy also starring a donkey that he transposes into the 2020s. The subject has lost none of its emotional potential over the decades.
An animist message
The octogenarian filmmaker proposes to share the destiny of Eo, from his life in a circus with a loving mistress to his many encounters when they are separated by activists steeped in good intentions. The entire animal condition is embodied in this donkey given over to the greed of more or less well-intentioned men and women. “I protest against large-scale agriculture and the fact that animals are killed for their meat and their fur”, insists the filmmaker. This animist message is transmitted in this militant and poetic work which sometimes flirts with the fantastic or the horror around an animal exploited from Poland to Italy.
A sensory experience of great intensity, Eo takes on the appearance of a philosophical trip to show the world as the donkey sees it, incapable of hatred even when it is mistreated. A good way to denounce the inhumanity that can be faced by sensitive animals who have not asked for anything. “Look deep into Eo’s eyes, invites Jerzy Skolimowski. I would like this film to touch as many human hearts and brains as possible from the screen. His inventive staging and the gentleness of his hero allow him to make this wish come true. In Cannes, spectators wept bitterly. It is not excluded that it is the same in many French rooms where one wishes that a large audience discovers his beautiful film.