Agraharathil Kazhuthai | Donkey in a Brahmin Village (dir John Abraham, 1977)

A college professor faces ridicule when he adopts a newborn donkey after its mother is killed. He leaves Madras and takes the foal to his home village, against the norms of his community. Bad things start to happen, and the villagers blame the donkey; they kill it, and magically miracles beginning happening in the village. The villagers erect a shrine to the donkey, but they get their comeuppance … Abraham’s Tamil-language satire on social norms among high-caste Brahmins was originally shunned but has since attained cult status.

Screens with two shorts by Kim Elias Majdalani, No Man’s Land (6 min) about a dead zone on the disputed southern borders of Lebanon, where wildlife thrives in the absence of human settlement; and Revenge of Nature (12 min), how nature reclaims its territory through ecological succession after an area has been abandoned by humans.

This programme is the final event of the Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival, a collaboration between NYUAD and Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi.