You are here:

Magdana's Donkey

Name: Magdana's Donkey
Director: Rezo Chkheidze, Tengiz Abuladze
Released: 1955
Duration: 72 min

Representation Score

3.8/10

Limited

1955

Director

Rezo Chkheidze, Tengiz Abuladze

Runtime

72 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

New Showbiz Analysis

Magdana's Donkey stands out as a humanistic piece of Georgian cinema that prioritizes character-driven storytelling over rigid archetypes. By centering the narrative on a woman who play a significant role in driving the story, the film challenges submissive female roles common in 1950s folk dramas. The film's primary strength lies in its cultural specificity. It provides a vital window into a non-Western social structure and the struggles of the working class, offering a perspective rarely seen in mainstream cinema of that period. However, the film is limited by its narrow demographic focus. It lacks representation for LGBTQ+ identities and disabilities, and the ethnic homogeneity reflects the specific historical and regional setting.

Watch this, not that →

Category Breakdown

Does Magdana's Donkey have LGBTQ+ representation?

Minimal

The film focuses on a rural peasant family and their bond with an animal. It contains no LGBTQ+ characters or explorations of queer themes.

How does Magdana's Donkey portray gender?

Good

Magdana serves as a strong central protagonist who challenges traditional hierarchies. Her stubbornness and autonomy defy passive domestic femininity often seen in mid-century folk narratives.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Magdana's Donkey?

Fair

The cast is ethnically homogeneous, centering on a Georgian village. It offers an authentic non-Western perspective that deviates from Anglo-Saxon-centric cinematic norms of the era.

How does Magdana's Donkey represent religion and culture?

Good

The story highlights the tension between individual identity and systemic economic hardship. It provides a localized counter-narrative to the dominant Western cultural perspectives of the 1950s.

Does Magdana's Donkey include disability representation?

Minimal

There are no prominent depictions of physical or neurodivergent disabilities. The narrative focus remains strictly on family dynamics and the donkey.

Present on Screen

Challenges traditional gender roles by centering a strong, autonomous female protagonist.
Provides an authentic, non-Western cultural perspective through its Georgian setting.
Offers a nuanced exploration of individual will versus communal social pressures.

Limited or Absent

Lacks representation for LGBTQ+ identities and non-assuming gender matches what was assigned at birth characters.
Provides no visible depictions of physical or neurodivergent disabilities.
Maintains an ethnically homogeneous cast within its specific historical context.

Official Synopsis

This chamber drama is set in Georgia on the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. A simple peasant family makes its living by selling yogurt which the Magdany widow takes every morning to the town market. Once, in their mother’s absence, the children – six-year-old Mikho and three-year-old Kato – found an abandoned donkey on a road leading to their village. The foundling was fed, tended, and the moment the donkey opened its big, tender eyes, it was named “Lurdja”, which means “blue-eyed”. Surrounded by love and care, the donkey became a big help in the poor household. But this idyll was not to last long…

How are these scores produced? →