CHOREOGRAPHY

Far removed from animal naturalism, donkeys wander around, enter and leave the frame. Because of the angles and closeness of the camera, their movements create a strange and secret choreography. The editing also furthers this game of construction as the credits indicate that several donkey sanctuaries were filmed, such that the splicing perhaps brings together donkeys that have never really met. The displacements thus build up a composite space, thwarting at a deeper level the naturalist preconception typical of any on-screen appearance of an animal. When the donkey’s gaze “catches” the camera lens full on, something clicks, a sudden turning point. Is it an encounter? This is probably not the right word. In any case, the gaze is turned inside out, in a return-to-sender that stymies our habit of seeing animals purely as objects of knowledge, or predation. In line with Denis Côté’s Bestiaire (in 2012 International Competition at Cinéma du réel), the film also touches on the questioning of Jean-Christophe Bailly, who develops the notion of “precedence” in his book, The Animal Side: “this air of ancientness, the air of having been there before, they all have it and this is what we see when we see them watching us seeing them as simply between themselves, in their own world.” (Charlotte Garson)