Schneckentraum (2001) User Reviews

Romance and tragedy

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 21 June 2015]

"Schneckentraum" ("Snail dream") is a German short movie by director Iván Sáinz-Pardo. His roots become obvious with all the Spanish music in here. The film runs for 15 minutes and tells us the story of a girl who falls in love with the clerk at a store where she regularly buys stuff. The movie is in black-and-white, but it does not really add a whole lot in terms of atmosphere. The final twist is the main reason to watch this. It's not bad or totally uninteresting before that, but without these final developments, it may have been overlooked entirely I guess. Julia Brendler and Fabian Busch are maybe known to fans of German movies, but the biggest star here is the production company: "Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion" also worked on "Das Leben der Anderen" for example and, very recently, also on "Who am I". I wonder if the director will ever make another movie or short movie. He has been out of the limelight since 2010. Judging from his effort here and the award-winning outcome, he certainly has the talent. Solid short movie and it got close to an Academy Award nomination back then. Recommended.

very cute short movie :-)

[thivai-1 · 9/10 · 14 August 2006]

I saw this film on a short-film-festival in Cologne some years ago. It moved me so deeply that I still remember many details. I think it was in Black and White. The story is very cute but sad as well: SPOILER WARNING here is the content: A girl in a bar sees a boy and is interested in him. She is too shy to talk to him but follows him to his working place: A book store. She pretends looking for a book and when he asks her whether he can help she nervously grips any book. I think she even holds it upside down. It is about snails. She buys it and asks him to wrap it as a present. Now she goes to the bookstore very often and buys books from her secret love, never daring to speak with him. She soon has a big collection of wrapped books at home which she doesn't unwrap. Finally, one sees the girl getting dressed up and "practicing" in front of a mirror. She is determined to confess her feelings to him but as she enters the book store he is not there. MAJOR SPOILER WARNING! As she asks the owner of the bookshop, he informs her that the boy has been killed in a motorcycle accident. Understandably she is full of despair and back home she unpacks the books. And this is when she finds written in the books little notes from her beloved, saying "who are you?", "why don't you talk to me?" and finally "I love you".....