Au Hasard Balthazar = Balthazar

Balthazar is a donkey which is born in a French village and whose life is spent in being a slave to his human masters. Over the donkey’s lifetime we witness the harsh realities of rural life, a life mostly hard and brutal and only occasionally made bearable by warmth or love. The humans who surround the donkey are themselves in pain but they fail to understand - or do not wish to see - the connection between themselves and the animal which they use and which they abuse. Only a young peasant girl attempts to love the animal and it is within the beauty and innocence of this relationship that something approaching religious transcendence is made possible. Robert Bresson, one of French cinema’s most important directors, spent his life working on films which explored the experiences of society’s most marginalised and vulnerable people - the unemployed, the criminal, the ill. In an ouvre remarkable for its compassion, “Au Hasard Balthazar” stands out as one of cinema’s most important humanistic visions. As we follow the cycle of birth, life, work and death as lived out by the donkey Balthazar, we experience the shock of recognition and we are aware of bearing witness to a profoundly sacred vision. In French with English subtitles.