Magdanas lurja
(1956)

AKA: Magdana's Donkey

Country: Soviet Union

Genre: Drama

Synopsis

In Georgia, towards the end of the 19th century, a simple peasant family makes its living by selling yogurt which the widow Magdana takes to the town market each morning. Once, in their mother's absence, the children - six-year-old Mikho (Mikho Borashvili) and three-year-old Kato - find a sick, abandoned donkey on a road leading to their village. The donkey is fed and tended, and the moment the donkey opens its eyes, it is named "Lurja" ("blue" or "slate-grey") after its eye colour. Surrounded by love and care, the donkey comes to be a big help to the poor household. But the family's idyll is shattered when the former owner of the donkey comes to reclaim what he considers his property.

Notes

• "Magdanas lurja" is the Latin phonetic transliteration of the film's original Georgian title. The film is also known as "Lurd?a magdany" or "Lurja magdani", which are Latin phonetic transliterations from the Russian title.
• Based on a story of the same name by Georgian writer Ekaterine Gabashvili (1851-1938)
• Winner of the award for 'Best Fiction Film - Short' at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival (though the film, at about 48 minutes, does not qualify as a Short for the purposes of this database, which classifies a movie as a Short Film if it is under 45 minutes in length).