![]() ![]() Wandering off the farm Eo stumbles across a village whose soccer-crazy residents adopt him as their club mascot. It could always be worse, as we’ll soon learn. Is requiring an animal to haul our stuff or be ridden a form of exploitation? Is it cruel? You decide. These interludes are presented as neither good nor bad. Eo spends time at a farm that serves as a sort of petting zoo for special needs children. He/she ends up in a high-end horse breeding stable, pulling a cart loaded with feed and other necessities. Over the film’s 90 minutes we’ll follow Eo through a series of misadventures. Eo and the other four-footed performers are shipped off. The circus goes bankrupt at the same time it’s assailed by animal rights activists. This young woman is clearly devoted to the animal, showering it (is it a he or a she? I don’t know…) with affection and kisses.īut in short order things go south. “Eo” begins in a traveling circus where under a fierce red light Eo goes through his repertoire of simple tricks with his trainer Kasandra (Sandra Drzymalska). It’s not so much about the animal as our reactions to it and its plight. Rather we observe and, ultimately, impose on the donkey our own sensibilities. This neutrality makes the movies challenging, for the filmmakers don’t tell us what we’re supposed to be feeling at any given moment. Stare into their eyes and find what you can there. ![]() They don’t do cute things, they are not ascribed the same emotions as people. Both Balthazar and Eo are animals, pure and simple. Neither film attempts to Disney-fy its subject. The latest from veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski (“Moonlighting,” “The Lightship”) is an acknowledged nod to Robert Bresson’s 1966 “Au Hazard Balthasar”…both follow a donkey as the animal encounters a diverse variety of human beings whose behavior runs the gamut from loving to indifferent to cruel. What you get out of the donkey-centric “Eo,” I suspect, depends upon what you bring to it. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |