About

“Au hasard Balthazar is about our anguish, our passion, in the face of a living creature that is pure humility, pure sanctity: a donkey, Balthazar.” – Robert Bresson

Loosely inspired by a passage from Dostoevsky’s ‘The Idiot’, Au hasard Balthazar follows the donkey Balthazar over the course of his life. Shuffled between owners, he experiences moments of kindness and the depths of human cruelty. Rejecting anthropomorphism, Bresson instead uses Balthazar’s animal stoicism as a shattering parable for achieving grace through suffering – a theme that would operate as a leitmotif throughout much of the Catholic director’s oeuvre.

Often cited as one of the foremost masterpieces of French cinema, Au hasard Balthazar was recently voted the 25th greatest film ever made in the BFI’s 2022 Sight and Sound poll. Such is the potency of its ascetic power, Jean-Luc Godard once described the film as “the world in an hour and a half.”

PG | Mild themes and violence