Jerzy Skolimowski pays a wondrous homage to Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) with his latest film <I>EO</I>. The eponymous hero (named after the onomatopoeic braying sound “Hee-haw” a la Eeyore from Winnie-the-Pooh) is “rescued” from a Polish circus by an animal welfare charity. We follow EO’s travels from a farm, to a hardcore local soccer team, to a horse meat salami factory, to a distant Italian manor. The world seen through the eyes of a donkey is surreal and intimidating and its misfortunes are comparable to the passion of Christ. The adept mixture of nature documentary style, avantgarde experimental mood and virtual reality experience verifies the eightyfour-year-old director’s confident command of his medium, and there is a selfdetermination in his filmmaking that seems to echo EO’s aspiration for freedom. The film runs short at eighty-six minutes, but there are some – exactly six – names that you should not miss on the end credits. (Karen PARK)