White Snail

War looms over a rainy Minsk. In a modelling school, students rehearse their walk like soldiers. Morgues radiate a sterile coldness. Traditional treatments involve snails gliding across patients’ faces. Awarded at the Locarno Film Festival, White Snail lingers in the mind with its unforgettable imagery. It also offers a rare glimpse into daily life in Belarus, where beauty and death often meet in haunting ways.

Masha (Marya Imbro), who dreams of becoming a model in China, is haunted by the death of the patient who once shared her hospital room. Her search leads her to Misha (Mikhail Senkov), a morgue worker with an artistic soul, forced to bury his creativity beneath the demands of daily survival. Masha, trapped in the oppressive world of beauty, and Misha, numbed by routine, form an unexpected bond that shifts the course of their lives. But can two lost and fractured souls truly heal one another?

Austrian directing duo Elsa Kremser and Peter Levin have worked together before, and it shows. Their gentle yet assured style pays tribute to cinematic minimalism while centering compassion and humanity. As the camera trails the characters through the streets of Minsk, it captures not only urban desolation but fleeting moments of human connection. The film resonates with echoes of the war in Ukraine, portraying a society steeling itself against horrors just across the border. In this world, beauty is commodified, and the nameless dead vanish into morgue drawers. Somewhere in between are touch, gaze, and embrace, small gestures that save lives.

Joonas Kallonen (translated by Vilja Hynynen)