“Dedicated to the father, made quickly with a small budget, The Snail Position uses images like a game of mirrors between us and the other, between nostalgia, memories and resentments, without ever falling into the trap of trying to regain an impossible past and a present impossible to build… The images of Michka Saäl evoke the memory of time, the fullness and emptiness that bind, and unbind, all of us… She invites us to fight against the loss of meaning in things, in life, in ourselves.”
Myriame El Yamani, Cinébulles, Fall 1998, Vol. 17, no. 3
The air of truth
“This film is chock-a-block with autobiographical details that give it the air of truth. This franco-Canadian co-production has many qualities that come from elsewhere. From this Tunisia, which each of the characters recall as a lost paradise.
Anne-Marie Baron, L’Arche, No. 493, March 1999
Uneven, but promising
“The film is sometimes heavy handed and the acting uneven, but it asks enough questions and has enough insights to hold an audience’s interest, sometimes even with humour.”
Paul Villeneuve, Le Journal de Montréal, November 21, 1998
“A film sometimes heavy handed in delivering its message, but that offers several moments where Saäl retrieves her sense of documentary and lingers on the faces of her heroes, capturing images of weariness, defeat or hope.”
Xavier Leherpeur, Ciné Live, No. 24, May 1999
“An elegant film (despite its modest budget) with several scenes that work well (including one, superb, where Myriam finds her father again) that suggest — despite its faults — an original sensibility and a personal voice. In short, a first feature that is uneven, but promising, that makes us want to see the second.”
Georges Privet, Voir, November 19-25, 1998
