Grace Pudel is a lonely misfit with an affinity for collecting ornamental snails and an intense love for books. At a young age, when Grace is separated from her fire-breathing twin brother Gilbert, she falls into a spiral of anxiety and angst. Despite a continued series of hardships, inspiration and hope emerge when she strikes up an enduring friendship with an elderly eccentric woman named Pinky, who is full of grit and lust for life. From Academy Award-winning animation writer and director Adam Elliot, Memoir of a Snail is a poignant, heartfelt, hilarious chronicle of the life of an outsider finding her confidence and silver linings amongst the clutter of everyday life.

The Garden Cinema View:

This delightful stop-motion feature contends with difficult subjects with easy going charm and idiosyncratically Aussie humour. Featuring a life narrated in (predominantly) flashback, Memoir of a Snail presents a bleakly hilarious vision of 1970s Melbourne and Canberra. Exploring surprisingly raw material, including suicide and child abuse, this is not a film for children. Nonetheless, the inventive Claymation evokes a kind of childlike wonder which channels a direct emotional response from the audience. The slimy trail of despair is addressed in an amusingly matter-of-fact tone, which is both funny and relatable. Eventually, its all quite moving.