“EO” (2022) Review: One Man’s Donkey is Another Man’s Devil

In an interview with The Lincoln Centre, director Jerzy Skolimowski spoke of his early days as a filmmaker. Included was his utter shock in finding his first feature, Walkover (1965), achieved the second spot in Cahiers du Cinéma's annual top ten list. And what was his first instinct upon hearing such wonderful news? He rushed to the nearest cinema and watched the work of the man who bested him. That film, Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar (1966), was the first time the young upstart had wept at a piece of art.

Au hasard Balthazar (1966)

“EO” takes the character of Balthazar – once a metaphor for heroine Mary’s innocence – and puts the donkey centre stage. A mule for a performing circus, EO lives a quiet, content life with his handler Kasandra. However, bankruptcy and an uproar from activists soon forces the circus to pack up its tent; leaving all the animals to be re-homed. EO, now separated from the only person who truly loved him, must trek bravely across Poland to find her once again.

Surreal visuals and a haunting classical score by composer Paweł Mykietyn, transports EO and the audience into a mythical re-imagining of the source material. Screenwriter Ewa Piaskowska went further back in time for her inspiration, citing stories like “The Metamorphoses of Apuleius”, otherwise known as “The Golden Ass”, to help define EO's journey. EO stumbles through a gnarled, gloomy forest, cold, scared and alone. As owls with sickly orange eyes glare down at him, hungry wolves stalk him through muddy waters and hunters take aim with laser sights at his neck, the audience grips their armrests, pulled into a Grimm with a capital G woods, hoping their little donkey friend will ever see the sun again.

“EO” shines brightest when it leans into its fable roots. Skolimowski's direction, at its most raw and absurdist thanks to the editing of Agnieszka Glińska, finds itself right at home with some of Kafka's animal centred stories considering its strong themes of identity and belonging in a rigid and unjust world (“A Report for an Academy”, “Investigations of a Dog”).

However, while excellent attention is paid to improving the tone of Bresson's original tragedy, “EO” struggles to capture as meaningful a story as “Balthazar” because every human character simply feels less thought out and disconnected from the main story.

Skolimowski wanted to do away with acts and focus on creating a non-linear narrative. But now with two screenings worth of context, unless you consider a meandering five act structure that literally goes “Into the Woods” with occasional flashbacks and forwards "non-linear", I don't see how you can reach that conclusion. Where characters in “Balthazar” intersected and contributed to a modern portrait of The Seven Deadly Sins, the human characters of “EO” feel shallow and lack the same crossover. Gerard and his mother’s confrontation, once a interesting scene of a parent cowardly enabling a monstrous teenage antagonist, has now been turned into some priest gambling away his family fortune and the not quite incestous relationship he has with his step-mother (What's this got to do with my donkey friend?).

Without this sense of connection, EO becomes less saintlike and more Satan like. A curse of red and black, that carries misfortune on his back for those unlucky enough to cross his path.

“EO” is a visual and audible fairytale feast for the ears. However, as a response and homage to Bresson's original work, it struggles to have the same depth for its human characters as it does for its donkey.

Watch the trailer here!