Greenwich Entertainment is pleased to announce the US release of Caroline Vignal’s irresistible French comedic road movie MY DONKEY, MY LOVER & I, starring Laure Calamy (Call My Agent) in a Best Actress César Award-winning performance as the delightfully zany Antoinette, a heart-broken schoolteacher, who impulsively goes on a six-day hike to follow her lover, accompanied by a cantankerous donkey named Patrick. This understated charmer became a sleeper hit in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. MY DONKEY, MY LOVER & I is scheduled to open on Friday July 22 with select engagements in top 50 markets including New York’s (Angelika Film Center) and Los Angeles (Laemmle’s Royal). Primary school teacher Antoinette (Laure Calamy) is elated about her upcoming vacation with her married lover, Vladimir (Benjamin Lavernhe), but their plans are upended when his wife books a surprise hiking trip. On an impulse, Antoinette heads to the same mountainous region of the Cévennes National Park, with an itinerary inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic 1878 memoir Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes.
Completely unversed in the ways of the wilderness, Antoinette forges quick bonds with an idealistic innkeeper (Marie Rivière, Eric Rohmer’s The Green Ray) and several other offbeat fellow travelers. Writer-director Caroline Vignal's delightfully mischievous second feature film is an uproarious and poignant reminder of the virtues of independence as her protagonist stumbles toward self-revelation. Besides its Best Actress win, MY DONKEY, MY LOVER & I was nominated for eight César Awards including Best Film, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor.
"Fun and incredibly romantic. A jewel that touches the heart." — Marie Claire "Beautiful. A portrait of a woman of rare density in French cinema. A film that is never afraid of its emotions and whose extreme sensitivity, rich in bursts of laughter as well as in fits of tears, does not at any time show sentimentality." — Premiere "Stupendously entertaining. A sunny and spirit-lifting comedy boasting an endearing turn by Laure Calamy.” — The List
