Eo roams Europe, encountering humans who treat him both cruelly and kindly.
It’s a restrictive template as the life of a donkey does not lend itself to narrative.
It’s difficult to make a film about an animal that can’t communicate in language, of course.
Image via Skopia Film
But if it’s so hard, why do we keep doing it?
What is ‘EO’ About?
We first encounter EO in the middle of performing his circus act.
The performance itself is dreamlike and strange.
EO is separated from Kasandra, and his heartbreak at this separation sets him on his path.
Or at least, that is what the editing seems to imply.
From here,EO wanders the countryside, getting caught up in a variety of human dramas.
Often, he encounters animal cruelty, and sometimes, he is the victim of it.
This message comes across loud and clear on screen.
Thebond the film encourages between the audience and EO is the source of its power.
Though EO doesn’t speak, Skolimowski allows us frequent glimpses inside his mind.
These take the form ofsudden flashes of memory, always of his beloved Kasandra.
Image via Skopia Film
But if there’s something else going on inEO, what might that be?
EO wasplayed by six donkeysover the course of production.
That effect relies on the editing, not on the performance of the donkey actor.
Our sense of EO’s awareness and agency is an illusion.
We may love EO, and weep at his sadness.
Of course, this is only true because the plot contrives to make it true.
A lot of this suggestion is made during EO’s dream sequences.
In his dreams, he flies through the air and dances with a wind turbine.
He imagines himself as a Boston Dynamics-style robot dog, contemplating its own reflection in a puddle.
But even elsewhere, the camera settles into the POV shot of a mechanical crane at a junkyard.
These digressions are enthralling.
Where does the moral responsibility to be kind to each other come from?
These questions seem to beEO’strue concern.
They may also lead us to the conclusion that we should be kinder to animals.
What philosophy wouldn’t?
But it’s a more circuitous route.
EOis currently available to stream on Max in the U.S.
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