This is an excerpt of a members only episode. To listen to the full episode, become a member at http://seventh-row.com/join

One of the best movies of 2022, Jerzy Skolimowski's visually and aurally inventive Eo, is now in cinemas for a limited time. The film is about injustice in the animal world seen through the eyes of a donkey. It's a great big screen experience (for sound and image) so we're going deep on the film this week. Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney and Executive Editor Orla Smith are joined by Associate Editor Dr. Brett "Empathy" Pardy. 

About the excerpt

In this excerpt, we discuss whether Eo is presented as an "exceptional" animal/donkey in the film. Many films about animals depict them as exceptional, like Air Bud the golden retriever who can play basketball or Okja the superpig. In many ways, Skolimowski's film bucks convention here by making Eo a fairly normal donkey whose experiences (and the way he's depicted) render him a subject of interest rather than because he's a particularly special donkey. 

We ask, why do we care about animals on screen (in general) and why do we care about Eo? Does a home exist for a donkey like Eo?

Become a member to listen to the rest of the discussion, which includes:

In the full episode, we go even deeper on how the film creates empathy for a donkey and give a donkey the appearance of a full emotional inner-life. We also compare Eo to other recent films about (or featuring) animals — including White God, Lean on Pete, Cow, and Gunda — to help us understand how empathy is usually extended toward on-screen animals. Finally, we discuss how some of the best politically conscious films being made today, with youthful exuberance, are coming from directors over 70.

 

01:51 Why are we talking about Eo? 09:18 Placing Eo within the canon of donkey stories 13:53 Exceptional donkeys (this section is the only one available free)32:00 Anthropomorphising animals  46:56 An older generation of political filmmakers

Show Notes

• Become a member for access to all of our upcoming episodes
• Listen to our previous podcast season on Women at Cannes
• Read Alex Heeney's review of Eo
• Get your copy of our ebook on Lean on Pete, a film about an unexceptional horse
• Read Alex Heeney's White God interview with the film's director and animal trainer
• Get your copy of our ebook Road to nowhere: Kelly Reichardt's broken American dreams. It features an interview with the First Cow and Lean on Pete animal trainer.
• Watch the 2009 Sam Mendes Charlie Rose interview referenced in the episode. He discusses the differences between directing film and theatre

Related episodes

• Ep. 11: Mike Leigh's Peterloo (Free) - on the film and what we learned about Leigh's process and the film from writing the book Peterloo in process: A Mike Leigh collaboration
• Ep. 32: Sorry We Missed You and Peterloo (Members only) - we discuss creating empathy for characters navigating an unjust world
• Ep 93: The films of Agnieszka Holland (Members Only) - we discuss Europa Europa, Washington Square, and Charlatan and how Holland depicts life under totalitarian states (which has similarities what Eo experiences as a lower class donkey)
• Ep. 104: Agnieszka Holland on directing (Members Only) - an in-depth interview with the director about bucking convention from early on in her career, and how she continues to do so now
• Ep. 7: Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete (Free) - we discuss the film and its depiction of an unexceptional horse, as well as insights gleaned from our ebook on the film (Lean on Pete: A Special Issue), including how it was made

Where to find us

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter and Instagram @SeventhRow.

Follow Alex Heeney @bwestcineaste, Orla Smith @orlamango, and Dr. Brett Pardy @DrAntiqueiPod on Twitter.