Producer Eileen Tasca Finds Her Way With EO

By Nicole Goesseringer Muj

Eileen Tasca is managing director of Alien Films and Task Films, a production company whose co-shareholder is legendary Polish film director, Jerzy Skolimowski. In 2015, she was executive producer of Skolimowski’s 11 Minutes that premiered at the 2015 Venice Film Festival. The film won top prize at the Lisbon Film Festival and was selected as Poland’s entry for foreign language film for the 2016 Academy Awards. In 2010, she co-financed Essential Killing, also directed by Skolimowski, that garnered numerous awards at the Venice Film Festival.

Working again with Skolimowski, she is the Italian producer of Cannes Jury Prize Winner and 2023 Best Foreign Film Oscar Nominee EO , a parable focused on the life of a simple donkey, set against the backdrop of today’s maddening reality.

IEM had the chance to catch up with Tasca.

NM: Did you always know you wanted to work in film?

ET: Yes, but I did not come from a family in the business, so it took me a while to find my way.

NM: Many people outside of film don’t know what a producer does. Can you explain your role as a producer?

ET: Ideally, I see myself as a creative producer which means that I come in early on when the film still is in development, helping directors to hone in on their vision and then accompany them throughout the production process to make sure that their film is properly distributed to reach its target audience. There are many different types of producers. Big budget productions often have an army of producers whose individual roles may be limited to a specific task, such as securing the talent that will enable the film to be greenlit.

NM: Can you tell us about some of your previous films?

ET: I have mainly worked with auteur directors, such as Werner Schroeter and Jerzy Skolimowski, although I also worked with first time directors, such as Stefano Di Polito, whose film Mirafiori Lunapark was the story of three retired Fiat workers who wanted to build an amusement park on the site of an abandoned Fiat factory in Turin. Working with first time directors can be very rewarding but it also is very demanding. I worked on Werner Schroeter’s last film Nuits Du Chiens. Schroeter was known for his stylistic excesses, as cited by Reiner Werner Fassbinder as an influence, as well as on German cinema.

NM: Do you have a film that you are most proud of?

ET: That’s an easy question. Obviously EO.

NM: You have a film called EO. What inspired you to tell this story?

ET: I love animals and the film by Robert Bresson Au Hazard Balthazar, which was about a donkey, was the film that inspired Jerzy Skolimowski. And of course, working with Skolimowski always is an adventure.

NM: What do you love about donkeys more than people?

ET: Donkeys are kind and gentle creatures, although at times they can also be very stubborn. Our film EO shows how rapacious human beings are. We rape and plunder the natural world and we forget that we share with animals a kinship in the biosphere. That destroying the nature will intimately lead to our own demise. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a limit to human greed.

NM: Can you give us an anecdote or a favorite moment you had while making the film?

ET: EO was a very difficult film to make. At times it felt like Skolimowski was more like a sorcerer rather than a film director, who unleashed a force of nature bigger than any of us. Several people, myself included, broke our bones through freak accidents off the set. Having a donkey as the protagonist was either an act of blind faith or total folly. Skolimowski is an artist in the purest sense of the word. His best work comes from extrapolating from the script. This can create a few headaches for the producer as we are accountable to the funding people whose roadmap is the script. That said, we’re thrilled about the success that the film is having and hope that audiences will become more sensitive to the plight of animals.

NM: You recently attended the American Film Market. Why is it important for producers to attend international markets?

ET: The answer is quite simple…because no one can depend on their home market.

NM: You recently spoke on the Production Without Borders panel during the AFM. How was that experience and what was most rewarding about this eclectic conversation?

ET: It was fun. The producer I am working on now received a call from a friend in Los Angeles who asked him if he knew who I was because he had attended the panel.

NM: What will you be working on next?

ET: At the moment we are preparing a feature film by a young Lebanese director Nadim Tabet titled Under Construction. My company Alien Films is the Italian coproducer. There are also several other projects in development on which I cannot comment on right now. Stay tuned!