Skip to main content
The Boys and the Donkey film image; people looking at golden statue of a god

The Boys and the Donkey

少年与驴

VIFF Short Forum

Canadian Premiere

In the Tibetan Plateau, four friends roughhouse with a neighbour’s donkey, leading to a nasty scratch on one of their faces. They resolve to punish the beast.

 

Supported by

    

Media Partner

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Gurgon Gyal, Kundrup Dorjee, Norbu Wangyal, Takbum Gyal

Credits
Country of Origin

China

Year

2023

Language

In Tibetan with English subtitles

Film Contact
Content Warning

Animal cruelty

18+
21 min
Cinemas of Asia Drama Family Relations Shorts

Credits & Director

Producer

Tsemdo Thar

Screenwriter

Tsering Yangjyab

Tsering Yangjyab headshot; The Boys and the Donkey director

Tsering Yangjyab

Tsering Yangjyab was born in 1991 in a remote mountain village on the Tibetan Plateau. He graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 2012. In 2021, he won the Best Artistic Contribution Award at the 11th Beijing International Film Festival for his cinematography of The Lost (2021). The Boys and the Donkey (2024) is his debut short film.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Blue Film

Dir. Elliot Tuttle
82 min

This transgressive two hander puts an Only Fans camboy in a room with a secret admirer. Turns out they have history... Not an easy watch, but a film that will fuel discussion for those who are open to it.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Departures

Dir. Neil Ely & Lloyd Eyre-Morgan
82 min

Two lads meet at an airport gate and begin monthly trips to Amsterdam together. Their chemistry is off the charts, but it's Jake who's calls the shots while Benji is the one who's emotionally invested. Comparisons to Pillion and Trainspotting are on mark.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Blue Heron

Dir. Sophy Romvari
90 min

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Steal This Story, Please!

Dir. Carl Deal & Tia Lessin
101 min

Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, Steal This Story, Please! is a portrait of Amy Goodman, the host of the long-running progressive news show, Democracy Now!

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Richest Woman in the World

Dir. Thierry Klifa
123 min

Isabelle Huppert plays cosmetics CEO Marianne in this teasingly ambivalent satire inspired by the Bettancourt Affair, when L'Oreal heir Francoise Bettancourt scandalized France by frittering away her fortune on a notorious celebrity photographer.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Mārama

Dir. Taratoa Stappard
94 min

Set in North Yorkshire, 1859, this creepy gothic horror plays like The Piano in reverse: a young Maori woman takes up a position as a governess to a wealthy whaler's child, but finds colonial skeletons in his closets.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre