Magdana’s Donkey

Magdana’s Donkey

1955. USSR. Directed by Tengiz Abuladze, Rezo Chkeidze. With Dudukhana Tserodze, L. Moistsrapishvili, Mikho Borashvili. The debut feature of Abuladze and Chkeidze, fresh out of the Institute of Cinematography in Moscow, is a charming folk tale that was hailed as the start of a “new wave” in Soviet cinema and won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Sometime around 1890, in a small Georgian village high above a teeming town, the widow Magdana lives in a shack with her three children; walking to market along dirt roads and rocky hillsides, she ekes out a living selling yogurt. When her children find a donkey lying by the road and nurse it to health, it seems the family's troubles are over. In Georgian; English subtitles. 67 min.