The 2023 Oscar-nominated film by the master of world cinema Jerzy Skolimowski – director, screenwriter, actor, painter and poet, one of the most famous and acclaimed Polish filmmakers on the international stage. The eminent auteur has worked with Claudia Cardinale, Nastassja Kinski, Michael York, Gina Lollobrigida, David Niven, and others. He gave the film a working title BALTAZAR.
The working title was a nod towards Robert Bresson, one of the greatest filmmakers of world cinema and the director behind the 1966 classic Au Hasard Balthazar. The screenplay of IO, written jointly with Ewa Piaskowska, stands out with an allegorical approach to the subject. The story of a donkey named EO, which starts off in a Polish circus and concludes in Italy, is a bitter-sweet humanistic twist on a road movie. The narrative presents a panopticon of human behaviour towards a defenceless animal, a suggestive picture of social relations and cultural changes taking place in the modern world.
“Bresson’s film is the only one to ever truly move me, the only one to bring me to tears in a cinema,” Jerzy Skolimowski told the WMFF team on the set. “I also found it fascinating to direct an animal, a creature unable to fake emotions.It’s a completely different experience from working with actors.”
The talented and award-winning young cinematographer Michał Dymek is responsible for the camerawork. The film was shot in Galiny, Orneta, and Jedwabno, among other locations. Paweł Edelman and Michał Englert also featured behind the camera. The memorable score is composed by Paweł Mykietyn, who received the Cannes Soundtrack Award, in addition to other accolades.
Shooting locations also spanned the Subcarpathia, Warsaw and Italy (including Sicily). The international cast includes the world-famous star of the European cinema Isabelle Huppert.
Also featured is Lorenzo Zurzolo, the rising star of the Italian cinema. On the Polish side, the cast includes Sandra Drzymalska, Mateusz Kościukiewicz and the musician Tomasz Organek.
EO is a Polish-Italian coproduction, co-financed from the Warmia-Masuria Film Fund.
The film was an Oscar 2023 nominee, won the Special Jury Prize at the 75th Cannes IFF, and received other accolades at the Valladolid Festival, the Polish Film Festival in America, the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, the European Film Awards and 6 “Eagles” – the Polish Film Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Direction.
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Written by: Ewa Piaskowska, Jerzy Skolimowski
Directed by: Jerzy Skolimowski
Cinematography by: Michał Dymek, Paweł Edelman, Michał Englert
Produced by: Skopia Film, Recorded Picture Company
World premiere: 19 May 2022 – Cannes International Film Festival
Polish preview screening: 15 September 2022 – Gdynia Film Festival
Polish premiere: 30 September 2022 – Warsaw Olsztyn premiere – 1 October 2022
