The Comox Valley Art Gallery Film Series is a selection of titles from the Toronto International Film Festival Circuit. A total of 8 films will be presented during the winter/spring 2023 Series, with each film screening twice.
Films screen at 5PM on Sundays + Wednesdays at Landmark Cinemas — 2655 Cliffe Ave, Courtenay.
EO
This film will screen on Sunday, March 5 + Wednesday, March 8.
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Starring: Sandra Drymalska, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Isabelle
Huppert
Language: Polish, English, French, Italian with English subtitles
Length: 86 mins
Country: Poland, Italy, United Kingdom
Year: 2022
Content Advisory: animal cruelty, violence
84-year-old Polish master Jerzy Skolimowski’s gripping new drama, which shared the Jury Prize in this year’s Cannes competition, follows a sentient donkey as it experiences the best and worst mankind has to offer.
Working in collaboration with co-writer Ewa Piaskowska (who co-wrote Skolimowski’s Four Nights with Anna in 2008), cinematographer Michał Dymek (who shot Nathalie Biancheri’s TIFF ’21 Wolf), editor Agnieszka Glińska (who collaborated with Skolimowski on 11 Minutes and cut Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Lamb), and Paweł Mykietyn (who scored Skolimowski’s 2010 Essential Killing), EO is a fable-like journey through contemporary Europe, rooted in its tumultuous past, looking towards its uncertain future.
Told through vignettes, the film’s anchor is the anthropomorphic eyes of a donkey (played by six different equines named Taco, Ola, Marietta, Ettore, Rocco, and Mela) that senses its way through the wheels of fortune. These include helpless indenturement inside a mobile circus (under the care of wide-eyed Kasandra, played by Sandra Drzymalska, who was at TIFF ’19 with Carlo Sironi’s Sole), heading full speed for a glue factory on Mateo’s (Mateusz Kościukiewicz) lorry, a fractious adventure with prodigal-son-turned-priest Vito (Lorenzo Zurzolo), and a peek inside the so-called good life in the bourgeois home of a bored housewife named The Countess (Isabelle Huppert). To err is human, to forgive divine — and we are only left to guess what EO — after seeing the best and worst of humanity — would do. A subtle reminder about the absolute cruelty of eating animals, Skolimowski’s chef d’oeuvre makes clear that we’re not so different from the most common beasts: we are born, briefly experience suffering and (if lucky) love, are unceremoniously exploited for our labour, and then we die.
Tickets + Passes Available at CVAG:
Tickets are $14 for CVAG Members, $15 for Non-Members.
Season passes for all 8 films are $98 for CVAG Members, $105 for Non-Members.
Tickets are for the day specified on ticket only.
Tickets/passes are available for purchase at CVAG’s SHOP:MADE or over the phone at 250.338.6211. We are open Wednesdays – Saturdays, 10AM – 5PM.
Note: We recommend that you purchase tickets in advance. The films often sell out, and there may not be tickets available at Landmark Cinemas on the day of the screening. All seating is first come, first served. Please arrive at least 10 minutes before the start of the film; there is no seating after 5PM.
Click here for the full schedule of screenings for the CVAG Film Series – Winter/Spring 2023.