"Platero is small, hairy, soft; so soft on the outside, that it could be said to be all cotton, that he has no bones. Only the jet mirrors of his eyes are hard like two black glass beetles..." Jerzy Skolimowski is Polish and he does not know Juan Ramón Jiménez nor has he read Platero y yo, but the philosophy of his latest film is the same as that of the Nobel Prize poem. And the protagonist of it is also a donkey, Eo. This is the title of the film that could have been Eo y yo.
Because Skolimowski wrote and directed Eo, which won the Jury Prize at the last Cannes Film Festival, moved like Jiménez by love for animals and to "send the message that they are living beings, not objects and we must limit meat consumption ", as he explains in an interview granted to La Vanguardia after the screening of Eo at the Seminci where he competes for the Golden Spike.
The Polish director went behind the camera for another reason: "I'm bored with the classic narrative form of cinema and I put the point of view on a donkey. That has opened up new possibilities for me, it has allowed me to avoid dialogues, which sometimes are poorly written and the performers, who are not always as docile as a donkey. I have tried to find new ways to convey emotions, such as through music, which is the animal's inner monologue. I didn't want to bore you," he explains. .
Eo lives in a circus. One of the artists loves him and takes care of him, but the owner mistreats him. The circus closes and the donkey begins a journey that takes him from Poland to Italy, passing through the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. Skolimowski's camera portrays the beautiful landscapes of these countries where Eo ends up and also what the donkey sees and feels along his journey in which he meets humans, some treat him with affection, but others are cruel to him. the.
Skolimowski, who is also a painter, attributes the film's visual delicacy to the painting that makes him "sensitive to images." And although at 84 years of age he already has some 25 films behind him and a few awards at festivals such as Venice and Cannes, he prefers painting to cinema, because "although cinema is more accessible and reaches more people, in painting I am responsible for all the work, for each brushstroke, for each speck of color and that is more satisfying to express feelings".
And given preference, he is also inclined to work with animals better than with actors, because these "sometimes ask absurd questions such as, 'why do I have to get off the horse?' and you say, 'because it puts it in the script.' with the animal like caresses or whispers".
So far, Eo has won the award at Cannes and critical acclaim. He has also served Skolimowski to raise awareness of "the brutality of eating meat." The director explains that he has reduced his meat intake by two-thirds and that he plans not to eat it at all, although he does eat fish. And finally the public must know that Eo is well: "he has returned to his stable with his owner where he is surrounded by affection". "Perhaps now the offers will rain down on him to play another film," jokes the director.
