Memoir of a Snail

Childhood is life's best season, but for Grace and her twin brother Gilbert in 1970s Australia that's far from true. Relentlessly followed by misfortunes and loss, the two grow up with their paraplegic-alcoholic father whose joie de vivre is lost somewhere in his vibrant, Parisian past. When his sleep apnea writes a new tragic chapter, brother and sister are separated and thrust into separate homes (respectively with a cruel family of evangelists and a negligent couple of swingers). Grace gradually withdraws into her shell, much like the snails he obsessively adopts. The only glimmer of hope in Canberra's chaos is the eccentric elderly woman Pinky, whom Grace befriends. Fifteen years after his deeply human debut feature Mary and Max stormed end of the year lists, Oscar-winning animator Adam Elliot once again models an emotional, sometimes grotesque "clayography" that makes life's trials taste bittersweet.