A donkey, a movie star in the Palme d’Or competition

This content was published on May 19, 2022 – 21:58
May 19, 2022 – 21:58

(AFP)

Not all of them are actors and actresses on the big screen. The Donkey is the absolute protagonist of veteran Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski’s “Eo,” one of the films competing for the Palme d’Or, which was shown Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival.

The animal, rescued from the circus, is taken to a farm where it escapes. Then he begins a journey that takes him to places completely unfamiliar to him, such as a football match or a luxurious Italian villa.

The 84-year-old director honored Robert Bresson’s “Baltassar Random” movie “Eo,” which also starred Donkey, and asserts that he wanted to make the film “to see the world in a broader way, from a different perspective,” according to the film’s statement.

The film, an ode to animal defense and against abuse, shows a gray donkey with a sad look that appears to discover, in amazement, horses trapped in the stables, a fox killed by poachers or a bird crashing into it. Wind turbine blades.

Skolimovsky explains that shooting with the donkey in question, called a taco, “the only way to convince him to do something is with tenderness: words whispered in his ear and some friendly caresses.”

But, according to the director, working with the animal has its merit: “Donkeys do not know how to “behave”, they are not able to pretend anything, they simply are.”

In fact, it was necessary to work with five other donkeys, all taco-like, to complete the film.

Among the actors participating in the film, the French actress Isabelle Hubert in a small role.

Skolimowski has thirty films behind him and has competed on numerous occasions at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1978, he won the Grand Jury Prize for “The Scream,” and four years later he won the Best Screenplay award for “Clandestine Work,” starring Jeremy Irons.