Donkey Power: The History Of Cinema’s Favourite Sidekick

A cultural history essay examining the prominent role of donkeys across cinema and literature, prompted by their appearance in 2023 Oscar contenders including Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin and Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, the latter inspired by Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar. The piece traces donkeys through canonical works from Apuleius and Cervantes to contemporary animation, exploring why this unglamorous animal functions effectively as a protagonist or sidekick in storytelling. Rather than analyzing individual films through an auteurist lens, the article surveys broader cultural mythology and literary tradition, positioning donkeys as unconventional yet enduring narrative devices that resist simple anthropomorphic symbolism compared to more obviously heroic creatures.

Original article published on The Quietus — AI-generated summary. Read the full article at the source.