Au Hasard Balthazar

A austere, deeply melancholic meditation on suffering and grace told through the parallel lives of a donkey and a girl, where cruelty and powerlessness are met with quiet acceptance and spiritual transcendence.

The story of a 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.