EO is a 2022 film from Poland directed by Jerzy Skolimowski.
The protagonist is EO, a donkey (the title and so presumably the donkey's name is always capitalized, "EO"). EO starts out as an animal in a circus, where it apparently performs in an act with a human named Kasandra. Kasandra loves and cherishes EO, but the circus apparently isn't doing well, and EO is confiscated for non-payment of debt, as are other animals at the circus.
That starts a long odyssey for poor EO, as the donkey wanders from place to place, getting put to work drawing a cart at a stable for racehorses, being used in an animal farm petting zoo, and going on and on. EO gets s full dose of man's cruelty to animals, like when EO himself is abused, or when EO witnesses a wolf shot by hunters.
Isabelle Huppert appears near the end as an unnamed countess who briefly encounters EO.
Has nothing to do with Captain EO.
Tropes:
- Blade-of-Grass Cut: The sequence where EO wanders through the forest, basically the only time where he is free, is introduced by extreme closeups of a frog swimming in a stream, a spider spinning a web, and an owl perched on a tree branch.
- Central Theme: Man's cruelty to and abuse of animals. Sometimes it can be mild, like when a beautiful white horse is pampered but also kept cooped up in a stable. Sometimes it's severe, like when foxes are electrocuted for their fur, wolves are shot (and whimper in pain as they slowly die), and EO is brutally beaten by drunken soccer hooligans.
- Color Motif: Various scenes throughout are shot with a red filter, starting with the opening scene where EO is performing in a circus with Kasandra. The color red keeps popping up, like the scene where EO wanders through a forest and up to a windmill, only for a bird killed by the windmill to crash to the ground right in front of him. Some scenes associate the color red with violence to animals, like after EO is beaten by the soccer hooligans or the aforementioned window scene. Others seen more random, like when Kasandra is bathed in the red light of a brake signal after the last time she sees EO, or when Mateo the truck driver has his cab lit with a red light.
- Downer Ending: EO wanders into a line of cattle at a slaughterhouse, and is slaughtered along with them.
- Flashback: There are occasional brief flashbacks, apparently EO's memories, of its time at the circus with its loving trainer Kasandra.
- Football Hooligans: EO wanders up to the site of a soccer match, and winds up being briefly, informally adopted by fans of the winning team, taken to a victory party and being fed beer. Then angry goons who support the losing team burst into the party carrying clubs, send the fans of the other team running, and beat EO half to death.
- Foreshadowing: There are a couple of comments about how sometimes donkey meat goes into salami. The Downer Ending has EO wandering into a line of cows at a slaughterhouse, and getting slaughtered along with them.
- Killed Offscreen: EO is employed at a ranch where foxes in cages are turned into fox fur. The killing of the foxes by electrocution isn't shown, but the buzz of electricity can be heard offscreen.
- Laser-Guided Karma: At least one human pays for abusing animals. The worker at the fox fur ranch is kicked in the head by EO, and apparently killed (it's ambiguous but the camera appears to catch the man staring sightlessly upward.
- Laser Sight: EO is in a clearing in the forest at night, when a bunch of laser sights suddenly appear. At one point the laser sights glide over EO—but the hunters aren't there to shoot donkeys. They're after wolves, and they shoot them.
- Longing Look: Well it isn't really a longing look because we're talking about a donkey. But one sequence has EO, being hauled in a truck, looking out. There's a shot of horses in the field that EO is passing, running free and wild. Then the camera cuts back to EO, still looking out.
- Mature Animal Story: A definitely not-for-kids story about a donkey that suffers from, is expoited by, and eventually is killed by humans.
- P.O.V. Cam: Some shots are slightly out of focus and with a Fish-Eye Lens effect to suggest EO's point of view, like when it breaks out of a crude pen in an effort to chase after Kasandra, or when it wanders through the trees in a forest.
- Proscenium Reveal: The opening scene is a very surrealistic one in which a woman caresses a donkey while both are bathed in a red light, all under a strobe effect. It's revealed to be part of a circus act.
- Road Trip Plot: A road movie starring a donkey, traveling from place to place, buffeted by forces beyond its control.
- Rule of Symbolism: How do we know that humanity's abuse of animals is like The Holocaust? Because EO wanders through a forest that is growing over an old Jewish cemetery, that's how. (About half of the six million people murdered in the Holocaust were Polish Jews. 90-95% of Polish Jewry was killed.)
- Second-Face Smoke: Kasandra screams at Vasil for whipping EO. His only response is to blow the smoke from his cigarette into her face.
- Shower Scene: The equine equivalent thereof, as the beautiful white horse is lovingly washed and shampooed in the stable, in a scene that emphasizes the physical beauty of the horse, while poor EO watches.
- Sliding Scale of Animal Cast: Category 4, "animal cast with humans as major supporting characters." The film follows EO the donkey throughout, as it interacts with various humans, starting with Kasandra the circus performer and including others such as Mateo the truck driver who briefly adopts EO.
- Stubborn Mule: EO in the early scene where he refuses to pull Vasil the circus owner's cart. This leads Vito to start whipping EO which leads Kasandra to come charging in and confront Vasil.
- White Stallion: The beautiful white horse that is kept at a stabes where EO is employed as a draft animal. The message of course is that even beautiful race horses are abused and exploited: the white horse is pampered and groomed but is also kept locked up in a stable and forced to pose in photos with human fashion models.
- Wolves Always Howl at the Moon: Wolves are howling at the moon when EO enters the forest. This is not to establish a sense of fear like it usually is in movies, but to set up the end of the scene where hunters intrude into the peace of the forest and shoot the wolves.
- Xenofiction: A realistic story that adopts the POV of a donkey on its wanderings.
