Memoir of a Snail – Character sketches

“My characters’ psyches are imperfect, so I wanted their appearance to match my drawings which are loose, gestural and naïve.” – filmmaker Adam Elliot

In Memoir of a Snail, Pinky (Jacki Weaver) becomes a mentor, friend and confidant to Grace (Sarah Snook) after her father dies and she’s separated from her twin brother. Though Pinky’s old enough to be Grace’s grandmother, the two share a bond based on the experiences and challenges in their lives. When developing characters, Adam Elliot makes them as real as possible, often basing them on his friends or relatives. It’s his mastery of empathy that makes his colourful characters memorable, as he perfectly balances light and shade, comedy and tragedy. Pinky and Grace were both based on an eccentric friend of Elliot’s, who like Grace was born with a cleft palette and was teased at school. But this friend learned to cope and see the lighter side of things, growing up to become a keen collector of taxidermy, antiques and friends.