‘EO’: Skin 2022 movie review

Does cinema have a place in the repertoire of two Art House donkey films?

This is the question veteran Polish author Jerzy Skolimowski is sure to ask himself before seeing the latest work. EOWhich tells the story of various adventures in the life of a mule, who is stubborn as a mule, but also wise and free-spirited, travels to Poland and Italy, passes through different hands and tries to find peace.

Robert Bresson 1966 Au Hassar Balthasar Sure, Donkey is another great movie, but it’s also completely different, lo and behold, Beast. While Bresson used his animal as a means of observing human weakness and cruelty in provincial France, Skolimovsky takes a much more directly experimental approach, packing his film with stunning imagery and a terrifying soundscape over a minimalist narrative.

And yet, despite the story episodically told, EO, which is 86 minutes long, can be an exhilarating experience. This is largely due to the surprising and impactful photography by Michal Dimek (with additional footage by Pavel Edelman and Michael Englert), whose camera soars through the sky via drone to capture changing European landscapes, or up close and personal. Using our titled hero (or heroine?), who is best described as a subjective “dumb camera”. If there are any movies that play better on the big screen with built-in sound in a dark theater, this is one of them.

Skolimovsky has a long and varied filmography (Გ One step, Shout out, Ღ the end, Moonlight and many others) who have always been involved in experiments, but probably never like now. Working with co-writer and producer Eva Paiskowska, he avoids creating a casual story that fits between works of art and non-fiction, nature documentaries and avant-garde moods. If there’s a message behind EOThis is because animals, especially donkeys, are still treated very cruelly while beautifying our world.

Eo, played by six separate donkeys (for reference they are Hola, Tako, Marietta, Ettore, Rocco and Mela), is first seen alongside a dear young Cassandra (Sandra Drizmalska) who works in a Polish circus. The girl is also a caretaker and best friend, but she and the mule soon part when animal rights activists protest the circus and, for example,

In this opening, Skolimovsky seems to be emphasizing how people are perfectly incapable of knowing what is best for animals, even if they think they know. This is the reason that is portrayed throughout the film as EO moves from hand to hand, wanting to join Cassandra at all times. (This is apparently a direct reference to Bresson’s film, where Balthazar’s life was never better than when young Marie initially took care of him.)

The existence of a donkey has several high points, for example when it is transported to the zoo and becomes the object of love of students with mental disabilities and many needs, for example when it is neglected on the farm in favor of all the noble Horses well care (one of them is a model) or almost hunted in the forest at night.

Both moods are combined in the film, probably in the longest vignette, when EO appears at a Polish regional football match and ends with a victory for the local team. After that, they are taken to the bar to celebrate, but they are attacked by other hooligans on the team who not only beat up all the fans and players, but also the EO.

All of this would be mundane, even silly, were it not for Skolimovsky’s extremely visceral hollow direction, which makes even the smallest events, like a truck trip to Italy, feel epic. Dimek’s camera soars through the air, spinning in circles to follow a massive wind turbine, or hugs the earth, following a four-legged robot as if it too were a living being in a scene. The image is infused with red and blue filters, going from hot to cold and from day to night, transforming the forest into an open-air nightclub in a single sequence using laser guns.

It’s all very pleasing to the eye, even if an EO’s life is rarely simple and never ending. Without assigning an ending, let’s say it explores animals that are still exposed to wildlife in a scene that reminds us of scenes like Bong Jun-ho. okja or Andrea Arnold ხაроხაBoth also touched the skin.

Before that ending, another regular character appears in the form of Isabel Hooper making a brief appearance that looks like something from another movie, some sort of French-Italian family drama starring Villa, Countess and Padre, and thrown in here for that. It’s not very big, but it shows how Skolimovsky is ready to try anything in this latest attempt: the 84-year-old director’s work is as independent as the animal he wants to set free.