Cannes Review: Jerzy Skolimowski’s ‘EO’

deadline.com:

It may be impossible for a human to truly imagine the mindset of a donkey, but veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski for the most part does a very engaging job of imagining how a beast of burden sees and senses the world in EO.

Quite clearly conceived as a companion piece and response to Robert Bresson’s profound and deeply moving 1966 study of the same breed of animal in Au Hazard Balthazar, the new film, screening in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, creates an array of dazzling notions as to how such a creature might see the world.

Until it somewhat slips off the rails in the final half-hour, this is an exemplary, fresh and radiant piece of work from an 84-year-old director who has not lost his energy or own way of seeing things.Working in close collaboration with co-screenwriter Ewa Paiskowska and cinematographer Mychal Dymek, Skolimowski uses all manner of visual devices to discern what life looks and feels like to a creature that, unlike many other animals, has no say over the matter.

Far more so than for many beasts who live and work in close proximity with humans, theirs is an active and frequently arduous existence, one devoted to considerable drudgery until they simply run out of steam, after which they become essentially useless.