The Donkey Field

The Donkey Field. Single screen. Duration 19'40"

This new film weaves a link between an antisemitic attack in 1944 on a young boy on a piece of common land known locally as ‘the donkey field’ and the story of the persecution of Marie and Balthazar in the acclaimed film Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966).

The film features a text, based on sections of a memoir of Budapest in the last year of the war, and scenes which re-enact and reframe Bresson’s allegorical story about the scapegoating of innocent subjects. Partly shot on the streets of present-day Budapest, under a regime criticised for its anti-immigrant policies and harsh treatment of refugees, The Donkey Field underlines the relevance of the boy’s story to other, more recent stories of displacement and persecution.

The exhibitions of the work at Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London & Glassyard Gallery, Budapest also featured 3 photo-based works which looked at the shadows of this dark episode in European history in urban and rural settings.

A 96pp publication also entitles The Donkey Field was also produced after the launch of the project with images and text from the film, an Appendix with historical context about the events described and a Supplement featuring an expanded version of the script. This was published by The Everyday Press, London.