EO (2022)

Director: Jerzy Skolimowski

Starring: Sandra Drzymalska

Follows a donkey who encounters on his journeys good and bad people, experiences joy and pain, exploring a vision of modern Europe through his eyes.

Having received an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film, I thought ‘EO’ would be an interesting film. I expected a heart-warming, cute film about a donkey. Only part of this is true. It is about a donkey, and the donkey is cute.

‘EO’ is the story of a circus donkey named EO. When circus animals are being repossessed, EO is taken away from his loving trainer Kassandra (Sandra Drzymalska). He now has to work on a farm, and he soon becomes depressed. It’s amazing how donkey images put together can translate to a film about the adventures of a donkey, and makes the viewer believe the donkey is actually experiencing these emotions. From that aspect, the film certainly is incredibly well done! The donkey is absolutely adorable.

When EO tries to find his way back home, there are many obstacles in his way. But there’s not much of a story here; just some ideas put together. As a result I became a bit bored with the movie. There’s also not a great deal of dialogue here, which made it even more boring. This might have worked better as a short instead of a feature film. The best part about the movie, was the beautiful cinematography – and the donkey, off course.

The colour red is dominant throughout the movie, so I had to do a bit of research. I thought maybe donkeys see red the same way dogs only see black and white. As it turns out, donkeys are colourblind to the colour red, and cannot detect that colour. Interesting….

Oh no, and then that ending!!! I won’t spoil it, but just NO!! That was not what I expected. The ending reminded me of ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’. If you’ve seen this movie, you’ll know what I’m referring to. I was so looking forward to ‘EO’, but sadly I was very disappointed.

‘EO’ received 75 award nominations, winning 21.

Mainly in Polish. (also Italian, English, French, Spanish)

Would I watch it again? No.