Au hasard Balthazar

Robert Bresson’s pared-down style elicits extraordinary pathos from this devastating tale of an abused donkey passing from owner to owner.

Animal protagonists are traditionally the preserve of sentimental stories for children, but while Bresson’s tragic masterpiece about the travails of a donkey has the simple force of a fable, it presents a brutally pessimistic vision. Punished, maltreated, used, loved, Balthazar is put to work by one keeper after another, bearing silent witness to the folly and petty cruelties of his human masters.

Ranked joint 24th in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll.