Memoir of a Snail (Premiere Fund)

Sarah Snook lends her voice alongside Kodi Smit-McPhee, Magda Szubanski, Eric Bana and Jacki Weaver in the stunning second claymation feature from Oscar winner Adam Elliot, which won Annecy’s Cristal Award for Best Feature Film.

Her life may be a mess, but Grace Pudel (Snook, Succession; Predestination, MIFF 2014) does derive pleasure from three things: her snail collection, romance novels and her guinea pigs. As children, she and twin brother Gilbert (Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog; Slow West) eked out a modest existence with their paraplegic father, a has-been performer gripped by alcoholism and grief after their mother’s death. When he, too, passes away, the siblings are split up by child services: Grace is sent to Canberra, and Gilbert, to Perth. Isolated and depressed, Grace retreats behind a carapace – much like her snails – and fills her emotional void through compulsive hoarding. That is, until she finds a fourth source of joy: a friendship with outrageous octogenarian Pinky (Weaver, Animal Kingdom; Silver Linings Playbook).

This exquisitely hand-crafted stop-motion wonder from the auteur behind the multi-awarded feature Mary and Max, Oscar-winning short Harvie Krumpet (MIFF 2003) and AFI-lauded short Ernie Biscuit (MIFF 2015) is an affecting coming-of-age tale like no other. As it traces one downtrodden young woman’s journey to overcome loss and embrace herself, this bittersweet yet uplifting film also unfolds as a family saga across 1970s Australia on an intimate scale. Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Memoir of a Snail is an indelible reminder that while the turmoil of life may force us into our shells, all it takes is a little bravery to break free.