EO

Although Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO has been favourably compared to Au Hasard Balthazar, Robert Bresson's 1966 masterpiece in which he parallels the mistreatment of a young farmer’s daughter with a donkey who is brutalised and exploited, the veteran Polish director’s latest is very much its own beast. The film follows EO, a grey donkey named after his distinctive bray, who is forced to embark on a heart-wrenching odyssey across Europe after a group of animal rights protestors shut down the circus where he works.

After a brief spell at a donkey sanctuary, in which he dreams of being reunited with his former trainer Kasandra (Sandra Drzymalska), EO travels across Poland encountering a range of people; some of them caring and compassionate, others not so much. Throughout the film, cinematographer Michael Dymek frequently adopts a donkey's-eye-view to examine what humanity looks like through EO’s eyes, his equine perspective imbuing the film with both ­curiosity and concern. From his ill-fated stint as the mascot for a Polish football team and a fleeting visit to the Italian villa of an unnamed countess played by Isabelle Huppert, to narrowly escaping being slaughtered for salami, EO experiences cruelty and affection in equal measure.

A deceptively playful work of finely honed beauty, Skolimowski has – consciously or not – created a poignant allegory about economic migration that never feels sanctimonious or self-righteous. Instead, the film highlights both humanity's capacity for kindness and its callous indifference to the welfare of those who, like EO, are simply passing through.