INDEX
“EO” is a film about the wandering of a donkey. Confronting an absurd world that defies logic
Inspired by Robert Bresson’s “Au Hasard Balthazar” (1966), “EO” is a film about a donkey. The donkey, EO, is kept by a circus troupe and has a close relationship with a young woman performer, but one day he is separated from her due to a demonstration by an animal rights group. The film simply follows EO’s journey as he wanders without a destination.
Above all, this film thoroughly travels the world from EO’s point of view. EO is taken away from the circus troupe, and as he wanders through villages and towns, he encounters many people, but there is no judgment of right or wrong. There is no big story line, which existed in “Au Hasard Balthazar” and EO witnesses what happens everywhere he goes in fragments with a pure eye. Therefore, we, the viewers, are required to accept what we see as it is.
The key point of “EO” is that it does not necessarily pursue reality alone. The opening sequence, in which Paveł Mikyetin’s orchestral music rises slowly amidst flickering red lights, is intoxicating, and Michał Dimek’s cinematography of the natural beauty of the road has a beauty that is hard to believe. The sounds that EO hears are sometimes presented in extremely three-dimensional sound. It is a film that sharpened my senses to the utmost.
In other words, the act of watching the film “EO” itself is presented as an experience that transcends logic. Trees fall with a clattering sound, horses gallop across the land, cupboards collapse with a sudden crash, and a wolf is seriously wounded while being chased by hunters. A four-legged robot is shown symbolically without any explanation. But all of this has no clear meaning and appears only as an event that takes place there.
