Viskovitz

A park is the home of a snail community, constantly beset by predator invasions and teeming with human traps. To restore order and wellbeing among the populace, an authoritarian regime is instated. All the snails have to do forced labour for their food and reproduce when ordered. A teenage snail, Visko, hermaphrodite like all snails, has different desires. His shell is on the other side of his body compared to the ‘normal’ snails and so are his sex organs. Visko becomes a social outcast because he’s different. He decides to break free of the conservative society when he sees another snail beyond the community border and falls in love with him. Visko has to overcome several obstacles to get to the snail from the other side of his world, and when he finally does, he soon realizes that the seemingly gorgeous snail he had constantly dreamed of is nothing but his own reflection in a tin can. But Visko’s rebellion against the system is not in vain. He rediscovers himself and followed by the awareness and acceptance of his own sexual identity, Visko finds true love in this new world.

Director’s statement
Viskovitz is the story of a teenager being exposed to biological, emotional and social transformations of puberty, who becomes aware and assumes his/her own sexuality. It is a human story that is frequently encountered and even lived by some teenagers, but in this case, transposed in a community of snails. Borrowing many of the human’s characteristics, the community is socially well-organised, facing basic problems: subsistence and safety. Apart from these, it also faces the problem of sexual identity because snails are hermaphrodites. They require intimacy and acceptance in their own way. Since identity crises are very common in our times, the film encourages the idea of self-acceptance in one’s own terms, especially in over-sexualised societies. This relevant topic will be delivered in a comical way in terms of visual interpretations of erotic elements, female-male voice fluctuations of the characters while depicting teenagers’ typically-disgusted reactions towards sex.