Au Hasard Balthazar [Criterion Collection]

"Filmmaker Robert Bresson is well known for taking subjects that on the surface seem ordinary and insignificant and using simple means, showing viewers something rare and powerful. This heartbreaking yet thought-provoking drama tells the life story of a French donkey, but in true Bresson fashion is really a grim, ironic reflection on human nature. The donkey's first experience with humans is as the much-loved pet of small children on a French farm, but its next is as a creature of toil when it is passed to an angry young woman. The poor woman has a tragic life that ends violently when her cruel lover has her gang raped and killed. The lover, a biker, takes the donkey and tortures it too. The poor jackass then ends up with a sadistic farmer who mercilessly beats it. He too, comes to a bad end. The donkey then goes to a circus where it becomes a star, but this doesn't last for long and he is next forced to pull a plow. Toward the end of his hard life, the burro becomes the property of a gentle old man who sees him as a reincarnated saint."