EO | |
---|---|
Polish | IO |
Directed by | Jerzy Skolimowski |
Written by |
|
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Michał Dymek |
Edited by | Agnieszka Glińska |
Music by | Paweł Mykietyn |
Production companies |
|
Release dates |
|
Running time | 88 minutes [1] |
Countries |
|
Languages |
|
Box office | $2.3 million [2] |
EO (Polish : IO) is a 2022 Polish-Italian drama road movie directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. Inspired by Robert Bresson's 1966 film Au Hasard Balthazar , it follows the life of a donkey introduced to us while featured in a Polish circus. [3]
The film premiered in competition at the 75th Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2022, where it won the Jury Prize, tying with The Eight Mountains . [4] Submitted by Poland, EO was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. [5]
EO is a donkey working for a Polish circus. He performs in an act with Kasandra, who loves and protects him. When Animal Rights activists help get the circus shut down, EO is taken away and brought to a horse stable to work. In the truck being transported, and at the stables, EO sees horses running free and being pampered. After knocking over a shelf of trophies, EO is sent to a farm, where he seems depressed and won't eat. He gives rides to children through woods, where trees continue to be cut down to create space for man.
One night Kasandra visits him, bringing him a carrot muffin for his birthday, and telling him, "may all your dreams come true." When she leaves, EO gets through the fence and tries to follow her, getting lost. EO walks through the dark forest among various non-human life. Hunters with laser scopes begin shooting. EO observes a mortally wounded wolf. Sometime later, EO walks through an empty town, and in a store window sees tropical fish in an aquarium. He ends up at a soccer game, and his braying distracts a penalty shot, angering the losing team. The winning team takes EO with them to a local bar. That night, members of the losing team ransack the bar, and upon seeing EO, beat him nearly to death. A four-legged robot is seen struggling to successfully stand and right itself.
EO is at an animal hospital, where a janitor questions why the vet is trying to save him. Later, EO is working at a fur factory where a man shocks and kills terrified foxes. EO kicks the man in the head, possibly killing him. EO is loaded into a truck with other animals, though he isn't on the manifest. The driver, Mateo, stops at a rest stop and gives food to a homeless woman who runs away after he suggests having sex with her. An unknown figure slits Mateo's throat. Nearby, a priest named Vito is traveling to his family home and sees EO tied to a pole, as the police investigate Mateo's murder. Vito takes EO with him. Like Kasandra, Vito talks to EO like a person, even admitting he has eaten donkey meat sausage. Vito and his stepmother, The Countess, argue about Vito's gambling. EO notices the gate into The Countess' estate has opened, and he leaves. EO walks over a stone bridge in front of a large dam, watching the water flow. Sometime later, EO is with cows being led into a slaughterhouse. The screen goes to black, followed by the sound of a captive bolt pistol being fired, indicating EO has been slaughtered.
The donkey Eo is portrayed by six donkeys: Ettore, Hola, Marietta, Mela, Rocco, and Tako.
EO was shot in both Poland and Italy. Filming locations in Poland included the Wilanów Palace in Warsaw as well as remote villages throughout the Podkarpackie Voivodeship and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. In Italy, the film was shot in Rome and Sicily. Principal photography was completed by March 2022. [6]
The film had its world premiere in competition at the 75th Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2022. [1] [7] It had a limited theatrical release in USA by Janus Films on 18 November 2022. [8] [9] It was released on VOD by Criterion on 23 February 2023. [8]
EO grossed near $1.1 million in North America, [8] and $1.3 million in other territories for a total worldwide of $2.3 million. [2]
On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, EO holds an approval rating of 97% based on 151 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's consensus reads, "Bravely updating Bresson with brilliant results, EO is a donkey-driven drama that'll stubbornly stick with you long after the credits roll." [9] On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film holds a score of 85 out of 100 based on 30 reviews indicating "universal acclaim". [10]
EO was ranked fourth on Cahiers du Cinéma 's top 10 films of 2022 list. [11]
EO was submitted by Poland for the 2023 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, and made the December shortlist. [12] [13] [14]
Jerzy Skolimowski is a Polish film director, screenwriter, dramatist, actor and painter. Beginning as a screenwriter for Andrzej Wajda's Innocent Sorcerers (1960), Skolimowski has made more than twenty films since his directorial debut The Menacing Eye (1960). In 1967 he was awarded the Golden Bear prize for his Belgian film The Departure (1967). Among his other notable films is Deep End (1970), starring Jane Asher and John Moulder Brown.
Paweł Jan Mykietyn is a Polish award-winning composer and clarinetist.
Austin Robert Butler is an American actor. Butler began his career on television, first in roles on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, most notably on Zoey 101 (2007–2008), and later on teen dramas, including recurring parts on The CW's Life Unexpected (2010–2011) and Switched at Birth (2011–2012). He gained recognition for starring in The Carrie Diaries (2013–2014) and The Shannara Chronicles (2016–2017). Butler made his Broadway debut in the 2018 revival of The Iceman Cometh and portrayed Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).
Essential Killing is a 2010 Polish survival political thriller film co-written and directed by Jerzy Skolimowski and starring Vincent Gallo and Emmanuelle Seigner. Gallo stars as an Islamic insurgent who finds himself fighting for survival in a frozen woodland, pursued by soldiers.
11 Minutes is a 2015 Polish-Irish thriller film written and directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. It stars Richard Dormer, Paulina Chapko, Wojciech Mecwaldowski, Andrzej Chyra, Dawid Ogrodnik, Agata Buzek, Piotr Glowacki, Mateusz Kościukiewicz, Ifi Ude, Jan Nowicki, Anna Maria Buczek, and Lukasz Sikora. Set in Warsaw, it tells the story of multiple people's lives over the course of eleven minutes in a single day. The film had its world premiere in the Competition section at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival on 9 September 2015. It was selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 88th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie is a New Zealand actress. A daughter of actress Miranda Harcourt, she began working as a teenager. After a minor role in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), she rose to critical prominence for playing a young girl living in isolation in Debra Granik's drama film Leave No Trace (2018), winning the National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance, as well as her role as Elsa Korr in the Academy Award-winning satirical comedy film Jojo Rabbit (2019).
Triangle of Sadness is a 2022 satirical black comedy film written and directed by Ruben Östlund in his English-language feature debut. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly de Leon, Zlatko Burić, Iris Berben, Vicki Berlin, Henrik Dorsin, and Woody Harrelson. It follows a celebrity couple on a luxury cruise with wealthy guests that end stranded on a desert island and fighting for survival.
Flee is a 2021 independent adult animated documentary film directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen. An international co-production with Denmark, France, Norway, and Sweden, it follows the story of a man under the alias Amin Nawabi, who shares his hidden past of fleeing his home country of Afghanistan to Denmark for the first time. Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau serve as executive producers and narrators for the English-language dub version.
Decision to Leave is a 2022 South Korean neo-noir romantic mystery film produced and directed by Park Chan-wook, who co-wrote the film with his frequent collaborator Chung Seo-kyeong. The film follows married detective Jang Hae-jun, whose investigation of a man's death leads him to the man's widow, Chinese immigrant Song Seo-rae. Hae-jun's investigation of Seo-rae as a suspect gradually leads him to develop feelings towards her.
Compartment No. 6 is a 2021 drama road movie co-written and directed by Juho Kuosmanen, starring Seidi Haarla and Yuri Borisov, based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Rosa Liksom.
The Worst Person in the World is a 2021 romantic comedy-drama film directed by Joachim Trier, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eskil Vogt. It is the third film in the director's Oslo trilogy, following Reprise (2006) and Oslo, August 31st (2011).
Close is a 2022 coming-of-age drama film directed by Lukas Dhont, and written by Dhont and Angelo Tijssens, reteaming after their first feature film Girl (2018). The film stars Eden Dambrine, Gustav de Waele, Émilie Dequenne and Léa Drucker. It follows two teenage boys whose close friendship is thrown into disarray when their schoolmates notice their intimacy, causing a rift between them.
The 75th annual Cannes Film Festival is a film festival that took place from 17 to 28 May 2022. The festival featured a tribute to actor Tom Cruise, whose film Top Gun: Maverick premiered at the festival and where the actor was awarded an Honorary Palme d'Or award on short notice. The official poster for the festival was designed as a homage to The Truman Show (1998).
Sandra Drzymalska is a Polish actress.
The Taste of Things, previously titled The Pot-au-Feu, is a 2023 French historical romantic drama film written and directed by Trần Anh Hùng starring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel.
The 35th European Film Awards, presented by the European Film Academy to recognize achievements in European filmmaking, took place at the Harpa Conference and Concert Hall in Reykjavík, Iceland on 10 December 2022. According to the academy, films eligible for the awards are those that had their first official screening between 1 June 2021 and 31 May 2022 and have a European director.
May December is a 2023 American drama film directed by Todd Haynes from a screenplay by Samy Burch, based on a story by Burch and Alex Mechanik. It stars Natalie Portman as an actress who travels to meet and study the life of Gracie, the controversial woman she is set to play in a film—a woman infamous for the 24-year-long relationship with her husband Joe, which began when he was 13 years old and she was 36.
The Zone of Interest is a 2023 historical drama film written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, co-produced among the United Kingdom, the United States, and Poland. Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, the film focuses on the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, who live with their family in a home in the "Zone of Interest" next to the concentration camp. Christian Friedel stars as Rudolf Höss alongside Sandra Hüller as Hedwig Höss.