The Transformation of Ekaterine Gabashvili’s Magdana’s Donkey from Text to Screen

Abstract

The present study examines the transformation of Ekaterine Gabashvili’s well-known short story Magdana’s Donkey from literary text to cinematic screen not only from a cinematographic perspective but also— and more significantly—from a gender-oriented standpoint. The aim of the research is to reveal how the female narrative voice is altered in the process of cinematic interpretation of the literary text.

The short story was written in 1890, whereas the film adaptation was directed by Tengiz Abuladze and Rezo Chkheidze in 1955, under a radically different socio-political context. The study pays particular attention to the issues of women’s social and economic vulnerability, the phenomenon of motherhood, and the impact of a patriarchal environment on a woman’s fate. Based on gender theory, the analysis demonstrates that in Gabashvili’s text the female voice is presented as an individual experience, while in the film adaptation it is transformed into part of a collective social tragedy. The article argues that despite narrative and aesthetic differences, in both the literary text and the film Magdana remains a symbol of feminine resilience, dignity, and moral strength.