Bleak Week: Au Hasard Balthazar

A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations beyond his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly. Through Bresson’s unconventional approach to composition, sound, and narrative, this simple story becomes a moving parable about purity and transcendence.
Featuring a pre-recorded introduction by Brenda Austin-Smith, a film studies professor and head of the English, theatre, film & media department at the University of Manitoba.