For those of us unable to travel to Graz for the Diagonale Film Festival, CineClub brings a taste of this Austrian festival back to London with the feature film White Snail. This German-Austrian romance was written and directed by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter (Space Dogs and Dreaming Dogs). The film is inpired by the real-life stories of non-professional actors and follows Masha, a Belarusian model persuing her dream job in China, and Misha a painter working in a morgue. When Masha, played by Marya Imbro, finds herself drawn to the mysterious Misha, played by Mikhail Senkov, their encounter unsettles her sense of body, beauty and mortality. This is the fragile love story of two outsiders who turn each other's worlds upside down and discover that they are not alone.

The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 78th Locarno Film Festival (2025) where it won the Special Jury Prize and the Pardo for Best Performance for Imbro and Senkov.

You can read more about the film here via Screen Daily.

Austria, 2025, 115min, Russian, Belarusian, English, Mandarin with subtitles, directed by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter.

All CineClub films are suitable for 18+ audiences unless otherwise advertised.