“Memoir of a Snail,” directed by Oscar winner Adam Elliot – and voiced by “Succession” star Sarah Snook – has debuted a teaser ahead of its premiere at Annecy. 

Australian theatrical release, via Madman, is set for Oct. 17.   

In the film, little Grace Puddle is separated from her twin brother Gilbert following their parents’ deaths. Things only get worse from there, she later admits to a garden snail named Sylvia – the only creature interested in her tragic story. 

“I gravitate towards the underdog. People who are perceived as different, marginalized. I am not interested in heroes. It’s probably because I am ultimately making films about myself. I really empathize and identify with my characters,” the director told Variety. 

“The truth is, they are all based on real people: they just happen to be my family and friends. In [previous film] ‘Mary and Max,’ Max was based on my pen pal, who is still alive. ‘Memoir of a Snail’ has a lot of my mother. We call her a ‘reformed hoarder,’ but she still collects.”

Despite his characters’ “imperfections” and numerous hardships they go through, Elliot – who won Academy Award for 2003 short “Harvie Krumpet” – continues to root for them.   

“Someone said to me recently: ‘You really drag your characters through the mud.’ But they’ve had so much bad luck that by the end of each film, when they finally triumph, you are on their side,” he pointed out. 

Grace, hiding behind objects cluttering her house, keeps experiencing loss, rejection, sadness and solitude. And yet “Memoir of a Snail” is full of warmth. 

“I’ve always loved that quote that without darkness, light has no meaning. There is a bit of this Australian, self-deprecating humor in there as well. I want the audience to laugh, but if I can get them to shed a tear, I really feel like I’ve achieved something. My father was an acrobatic clown and he used to say: ‘Adam, you are not an ‘auteur,’ you are an entertainer. Make them laugh and make them cry’.” 

Despite his affection for Ken Loach or Mike Leigh, Elliot is sticking to stop-motion. 

“I get asked why I don’t make live-action and it’s really simple: in stop-motion, you have creative control and you can push the boundaries of the art form. You can have a dark moment and a light moment almost simultaneously. In ‘Cousin’ [made in 1998] you find out our character’s parents were killed in a car accident while he is wearing a T-shirt that says: ‘I yodel for Jesus.’ Also, I just can’t help myself: I love peculiar deaths.” 

Or older mentors. In the film, Grace finally finds a friend other than her beloved snails: it’s an eccentric lady called Pinky, who encourages her to come out of her shell. 

“There is wisdom that can come with age. Now, there is a bigger gap between generations, so what could bring us together? Simple pleasures. Pinky teaches Grace how to be brave, because yes, she is like one of these snails. She’s constantly recoiling from all this trauma.” 

“Originally, it was supposed to be a ‘Memoir of a Ladybird,’ but it felt a little bit twee. I love drawing snails and I collected them as a child. When I write my screenplays, I don’t think about all the practicalities. After the 10^th draft or so, I went: ‘Oh gee, now I will have to make thousands of these things.’ I never want to see another snail ever again!” 

He will continue making films he believes in, however. 

“I’ve had offers [from bigger studios] and financially, I should have said yes. But I am a megalomaniac: I prefer to write and direct my own films, and I have my niche. Still, with my next project, I want to be even more ambitious. All my budgets are very low, so there’s always compromise – in ‘Memoir,’ there is very little walking. Or talking, which is why I use voiceover.” 

Once again, his film is narrated by a starry cast, from Sarah Snook to Jacki Weaver, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Eric Bana. Previously, he has collaborated with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Geoffrey Rush or Toni Collette. 

“Everyone says: ‘Adam, why do you always go for these Academy Award-winning actors?’ Because they are good! Sarah, in many ways, directed me. I am not necessarily striving to have globally recognizable names – I am striving for authenticity. I told Sarah: ‘I just want you to be yourself.’ The investors love stars, but I don’t mention them at the beginning of my films, for example. I don’t want the audience to think about the actors until the end credits.” 

Instead, he wants them to look into his characters’ eyes. Literally. 

“Even though these are blobs of clay, they break the fourth wall and look straight at you. They are asymmetrical and deformed-looking, but they also have this endearing quality.” 

Born with a physiological tremor, Elliot has incorporated it into his work. 

“When I draw, my lines are wobbly, so my 3D characters are versions of my 2D drawings. A lot of stop-motion has become very slick, but my characters’ psyches are fractured. I always tell my collaborators: ‘Put in the fingerprint, put in the lump. Pretend you’ve had a glass of wine and you are a little bit tipsy.’ It’s all about striving for imperfection.” 

An Arenamedia production, “Memoir of a Snail” was produced by Elliot and Liz Kearney, and executive produced by Robert Connolly and Robert Patterson. Anton & Charades handle international sales; the film is distributed by IFC for North America and Wild Bunch for France.

JOHANNESBURG — With the United Nations saying that up to 10 million people have been displaced and U.S. sources claiming up to 150,000 killed and some five million facing famine in a devastating year-long conflict between government and rebel forces, Sudan has been ripped apart.

But observers say it is a forgotten war.

“Sudanese (people) are asking why the world turns a blind eye as the third-largest country in Africa is laid to waste while at the same time fixating on the smaller conflict in Gaza,” Hadeel Oueis, editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab media outlet Jusoor, told Fox News Digital. 

“There is no extensive media coverage, and nobody cares about what’s happening here,” Abu Muhammad, a businessman in Sudan, told the Center for Peace Communications (CPC). “The little attention we attract fades away immediately. It’s the opposite of what is happening in Gaza. All the media channels are about is Gaza, Gaza and Gaza.”

With the aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) estimating that 25 million people – half the country’s population – needing humanitarian assistance, the organization’s president, Christos Christou, said in April that the situation is not acceptable and “this level of international neglect is shocking.”

GENOCIDE, FAMINE IN SUDAN AS BIDEN ADMIN ACCUSED OF BEING ‘IDLE’

On the ground in Sudan, student Muhammad Khalid told CPC, “The media makes decisions based on ratings, so it focuses on the world’s hot-button issues.”

“The media’s focus is on other issues like the war in Ukraine or Palestine. As to Sudan, problems in African society are seen as tiresome for Europeans and Middle Easterners. No one wants to watch it anymore.” 

In the Zamzam refugee camp in Sudan’s North Darfur, the MSF recently stated that around 75 people are dying of malnutrition and disease every day. A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “Five million people in Sudan are on the brink of famine. We demand all parties immediately remove all obstructions to humanitarian assistance and enable full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access, including cross-border and cross-line.”

Each dawn brings more misery for the ordinary people of Sudan, and “They face what could be described as a double tragedy,” Sudanese analyst Hamid Fathi told CPC. “First, these people fled from Khartoum to Gezira. Then they were forced out of Gezira and its capital, Wad Madani, and had to flee east when the Rapid Support Forces (rebel forces, the RSF) took control of the area. There is no extensive media coverage, and nobody cares about what’s happening here.”

Fighters of the Sudan Liberation Movement, a Sudanese rebel group active in Sudan’s Darfur state, attend a graduation ceremony in Gedaref on March 28, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)

Oueis told Fox News Digital that the people of Sudan “wish the world’s great powers would respond to the magnitude of humanitarian tragedy, which the war in Sudan has caused, or at least recognize the high geopolitical stakes.”

“Iran and its Russian and Chinese allies are determined to dominate Sudan and will undoubtedly succeed if the U.S. and Europe stay on the sidelines,” Oueis continued.

WORLD, PROTESTERS SILENT ON SUDAN MASSACRES: ‘NO MOB OUTSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE’

A wounded man lies in a Doctors Without Borders hospital where refugees are receiving treatment after fleeing ethnic violence in Ardamata, West Darfur, in the border town of Adre, Chad, on Nov. 10, 2023. (Reuters/El Tayeb Siddig)

Cameron Hudson, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, agreed and said, “The longer the conflict goes on, the more determinative external players become.” Hudson, director of African affairs in the National Security Council for the George W. Bush administration, told Fox News Digital that “after a year of fighting, both sides are now heavily dependent on outside support and resupply. The UAE has been the principal backer of the RSF from the start. Recently, Sudan’s army has begun receiving aid from Iran, and in the last week announced a deal with Russia to allow them a refueling port on the Red Sea in exchange for undisclosed weapons transfers.”

“The crisis in Sudan, including the ongoing genocide in Darfur, is a human catastrophe,” Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Fox News Digital. “President Biden has the power to highlight and influence this tragedy, but he remains silent.”

“Despite Congress and the Sudanese people’s desperate pleas for more action, the Biden Administration offers only empty statements and commitments and no real accountability,” Risch continued.

Smoke is seen in Khartoum, Sudan, on April 19, 2023. Warring factions trying to seize control of the East African nation have plunged the country into chaos. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)

In February, the State Department announced the appointment of Tom Periello as special envoy to Sudan. But Risch is dismissive.

“Even the U.S. envoy, who has an opportunity to offer greater U.S. leadership on Sudan, suffers from the same ineptitude and political indifference that has characterized this administration since the war’s outset,” he said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently phoned Sudanese Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler, and called on him to “urgently end the conflict in Sudan.”

Hudson told Fox News Digital that “prior to Secretary Blinken’s call, it was more than a year since Blinken had spoken with him. Blinken parachuting in at the 11th hour has had little effect, other than to demonstrate just how little leverage the U.S. has remaining over the parties.”

“The U.S. should have been using its leverage over countries like the UAE to suspend their support for this war,” Hudson added. “And it should have been encouraging other closer allies of the U.S. who are inclined to support Sudan’s army, like Turkey or Egypt, to do so. Instead, the army has turned to Russia and Iran as suppliers of last resort and over whom the U.S. has no direct leverage.”

US TO PULL TROOPS FROM CHAD, NIGER AS THE AFRICAN NATIONS QUESTION ITS COUNTERTERRORISM ROLE

Families escaping Ardamata in West Darfur cross into Adre, Chad, after a wave of ethnic violence on Nov. 7, 2023. Survivors recounted executions and looting in Ardamata, which they said were carried out by RSF and allied Arab militias. (Reuters/El Tayeb Siddig )

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement that “the Administration is working, alongside our international partners, to achieve an end to the conflict, meet humanitarian needs and support a return to a democratic transition.”

“We are pressing the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to engage in direct ceasefire negotiations; immediately end the fighting; adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law; and take immediate steps to improve humanitarian access to meet the emergency needs of civilians.”

Analysts say gold from Sudan’s mines and geopolitical influence are the main reasons external players have become involved in the conflict. The State Department spokesperson said Sudan’s warring parties are “turning to external actors seeking to take advantage of Sudan’s fragile state and resources, deepening the suffering of the Sudanese people.”

Sudanese army fighters are shown in Karima on May 19, 2024. Sudan has been in the throes of conflict for more than a year between the regular army led by de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. (AFP via Getty Images)

“The United States opposes external interference to support the belligerents in the Sudan conflict; it will only exacerbate and prolong the conflict and risks further spreading regional instability.” 

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield singled out the UAE when talking to reporters in April about the conflict in Sudan, saying, “We do know that both sides are receiving support, both with weapons and other support to fuel their efforts to continue to destroy Sudan. And yes, we have engaged with parties on that, including with our colleagues from the UAE.”

But a UAE government official, presented with the ambassador’s comments, told Fox News Digital that “the UAE strongly rejects these false claims and categorically denies the provision of any military, logistical, financial or political support to any faction in Sudan.”

The official continued, “Sudanese allegations pertaining to the UAE taking sides or supporting one side over the other appear to be nothing more than an attempt to divert attention from the ongoing conflict and the deteriorating humanitarian situation.”

Viktor Orban’s right-wing Fidesz party won big at Hungary’s 2024 EU elections on Sunday, but lost major support.

The Hungarian Prime Minister’s ultra-nationalist party received the most votes (44%) and will have 11 MEPs. However, it also experienced great losses, dropping a whopping 11% compared to the 2022 general election results. This result is the party’s biggest defeat in 18 years.

Still, Orban, 61, was buoyed by the news, claiming the election results affirmed his government.

“To sum up the result of the European parliamentary election we can resume it best as a telegram that sounds like this: Migration full stop. Gender full stop. War full stop. Soros full stop, Brussels full stop,” he said.

Orban’s government has been hit with multiple scandals, including a sex abuse scandal that resulted in several key members of his party resigning.

Fidesz’s traditional opponents, including the social-democrat and green parties, only received eight percent of votes and did not meet the threshold for entry in European Parliament.

The threat of Tisza

But a new political contender formed a few months ago, Tisza, scored a mammoth 29% of votes and scooped seven seats, becoming a clear opposition force for Orbán’s anti-left and anti-Brussels agenda.

The party is headed by former-Fidesz-insider-turned-rival Péter Magyar, who said on Monday that the election results are “very clear”.

“Fidesz only has one but very potent rival for the next national elections: our Tisza party,” he said.

Magyar, 43, has told [**local media**](Magyar, 43, has attracted big crowds to rallies at which he has accused the government of corruption and running a propaganda machine.) that he aims for his party to be firmly centrist and operate on a platform of anti-corruption and improving Hungarian’s quality of life.

Hungary is due to take over the six-month presidency of the Council of the EU in July.