Cannes Donkey Film Sensation ‘EO’ Unveils Trailer, Director Jerzy Skolimowski Explains His Beloved Animal Hero (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Manori Ravindran International Editor It may officially be the year of the tiger in the Chinese Zodiac calendar, but in the world of film, it’s definitely the year of the wee donkey.

The humble equine features in films such as Searchlight’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” and even Neon’s “Triangle of Sadness,” but nowhere is this loyal beast of burden in the spotlight more than Janus Films and Sideshow’s “EO,” from legendary Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski.

The film — which shared the Cannes Jury Prize with Félix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s “The Eight Mountains” — shares a vision of modern Europe through the prism of a gray donkey, EO, who is torn away by animal activists from his beloved circus performer owner, and passed from hand to hand in the service of humans.

On his life’s path, EO meets all sorts of people and experiences joy and pain, as well as disasters and unexpected bliss. Skolimowski, an avowed animal lover, took inspiration from Robert Bresson’s masterpiece “Au Hasard Balthazar,” which he saw soon after its 1966 release. “This was the lesson I got from Bresson,” says Skolimowski. “That an animal hero is able to move you even more than a human hero.” And indeed, the vulnerable EO is about as innocent a protagonist as they come, which makes the cruelties he endures by humans all the more abhorrent.