“What are you doing, Noretta, with your balloon as you cross the country on Sunday morning?”
Dino Buzzati
How do you make a donkey fly?
First of all, forget all those unrealistic ways: Peter Pan’s Pixie Dust, spells, apotropaic rituals, magic potions, and so on.
Coming back to earth, there are plenty of practical methods: building wings out of wax (beware: tell the donkey not to imitate Icarus), firing the equine with a cannon (do NOT warn the donkey of his impending doom), throwing the quadruped down a bell tower and see what happens next (allegedly it worked in Pontenure, and we built a festival out of this proven fact), or resorting to the assorted collection of objects that fly themselves.
The most inexpensive and colorful way is by far using a joyful helium-filled balloon, that is to say, what Giulia Pastorino, the resourceful author of the 2025 poster, chose to make the donkey of the 24th edition of Concorto Film Festival fly.
A donkey with a lovely backside and a look that is surprised, yet not annoyed, by this change in perspective. Only his adorable, somewhat inappropriate cap (something in between a sombrero and a bowler hat) reveals the sudden and unexpected ascent. Like any donkey worthy of his name, his back legs are kicking, not so much out of anger, but rather in enjoyment of defying gravity. We playfully mock the weight of gravity that holds us down as well, just like short films can do best, for the donkey flies and will keep flying.
In the author’s own words:
“Shaping the animal that represents the festival was real fun. As is often the case, the idea did not come up straight away. I lined up donkeys with butterfly and dragonfly wings, mechanical donkeys equipped with contraptions and propellers, inflated donkeys as light as hot air balloons, and finally I landed on them: balloons. Balloons remind us of our childhood, as well as of parties, big events, times of wonder and togetherness that taste like magic. I opted for a donkey whose snout is inspired by masks of distant traditions, floating in the air above buildings, carried by a bunch of light balloons.“
Giulia Pastorino comes from Genoa and studied first at Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti, and then at ISIA in Urbino, where she specialized in illustration.
She won in 2016 the Tapirulan illustrators contest and published shortly after her first illustrated book, Il Capitano D’Albertis e le sue entusiasmanti imprese (Captain D’Albertis and his exciting adventures) (Tapirulan, Matti da rilegare), out of which an exhibition and a permanent discovery path for children were created at Castello D’Albertis – Museum of World Cultures in Genoa.
Her solo exhibition “Zonzo” was hosted in the Ó! Gallery in Lisbon in 2019. In 2021, she participated in the “Italian Excellence” exhibition within the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. She is featured among the ILLUSTRI 2024 illustrators.
She illustrated several books and collaborates regularly with publishing houses, magazines, galleries, and communication agencies. Oil pastels are her best friends but she also enjoys experimenting and playing with different techniques. She holds workshops and meetings for adults and children.
https://www.instagram.com/giulietta_pasto/
