The camera starts to move between garbage and artifacts. Gray, brown, off colors. Eccentric jokes hidden in images and imaginary related to snails. It's all about plastilin, but at the same time real and serious. Memoir of a Snail (Memories of a snail) Last screening by Adam Elliot on the screen of the Main Theatre.

This is an animation tragicomedy carried out through the stop motion technique. In it we will see the portrait of the life of Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook), a woman who seems to start with a misfortune from birth and who is not going to get much better. Obviously, it is not a regular production to see: we usually associate stop-motion and animation with films for children, but this is not suitable for children, far from it.

It is a serious and crude film, full of problems and tragedies, which soon leads the viewer to feel empathy with the protagonist. Moreover, sometimes the script can be heavy, because we will not understand why it has touched Grace to live everything she lives. All of this, however, is nothing more than a tool to convey the general idea of the film. Moreover, all stylistic selections of the film are used by the author to communicate this idea very effectively: aspect of the plastiline figurines used, selected colors, built scenarios... The music and the typeface also scream at the word “catastrophe” and, of course, also the script.

Humor is very ingenious. Rather than focusing on verbal jokes, the viewer will have to pay attention to the screen to understand humor, and I think the experiences that require the active participation of the public are the best. At that time, laughter has been heard in the theater, as we have greatly appreciated the acidic and acute humor to be able to take the dark script with more peace of mind. Despite all the blackness, production has tried to give a strong and positive message. Whether or not he has succeeded, I do not know: I thought it was a bit hard.

However, as I believe that Harkaitz Cano makes in his books, a unique metaphor (that of snails) is rebutted from start to finish. I mean rounding or rolling.

In the afternoon, I
was touched by the terrible two-and-a-half hour documentary by Johan Grimonzes: Soundtrack to a coup d’etat. It tells us about the process of independence in the Republic of the Congo. I do not believe that documentaries have to be criticised as films, since in most cases they have an entirely different objective, so I think it is more appropriate to write very briefly what the documentary tells.

The work shows the cruellest face of imperialism and colonialism, based on the international interest in the Republic of the Congo. Until 1960 Congo was a Belgian colony, especially interesting, as the value of the mineral reserves it contained was dollar trilioika. Therefore, it shows all the suffering suffered by the country and the citizenship
because of its economic status.

United States, Belgium, Soviet Union, NATO, United Nations Organization, Cuba... The opinions, behaviors and political decisions of all are presented as a complex mix. Eisenhower, Malcolm X, Fidel Castro, UN representatives in Asian and African countries... Also, of course, as pieces in the game of history, they appear in the documentary, explaining the role and participation of each one of them. Uranium is a country with reservations, and there are also many explanations about the cold war and nuclear war.

In such a situation, the documentary points to the worst of the human being. As expected, there are murders, violations, political machinations and attempts to assassinate political leaders. You will have to deal with rage that in 1960 a pretended declaration of independence was signed, after three days before privatising the “Mining Union” and selling it to Belgium; and with rage, that the legitimate Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba will be arrested at home and killed seven months later.

The summary does not show the full picture of all the information in the documentary. Even if it's hard, see the work, there's no other way to start understanding the political conflict. The part of everything explains the role played by music, especially jazz: the participation of musicians, their use as weapons or distractions, and how musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach denounced the murder of Lumumba at a UN meeting, among others. A geek nuance: the sources and colors of the film are the same as those used in classic jazz discs.

In short, Soundtrack to a coup d’etat is a documentary that leaves a taste of blood in the mouth, cruel, but from our position of privilege, at least, we must know the story.