What can't be doubted is the inspiration for this Polish film, which concerns a donkey. It is Robert Bresson's masterpiece Au Hasard Balthazar. But that 1966 film is about an ordinary rural donkey. EO's donkey (called EO) is special. He has spent his whole life in a Polish circus, and so when he is liberated from the small world of entertaining humans, he enters and journeys through strange and cruel natural and cultural worlds. In this respect, the story is much like the almost unknown late Soviet-Era novel Faithful Ruslan. In that story, a guard dog accustomed to being cruel to human prisoners is liberated and sees and is confused by a less brutal human world. EO won the Jury Prize at 2022's Cannes Film Festival.