Kinopoisk blurred images of the Bible and crosses in the animated film...

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🎬❌ Kinopoisk blurred images of the Bible and crosses in the animated film Memoir of a Snail. It also cut the gay storyline of one of the main characters

The Kinopoisk online cinema service censored the Australian animated film Memoir of a Snail, blurring images of the Bible, crosses, Lucifer, and mentions of Jesus, and also completely cutting all LGBT-related material from it, MO noticed.

Warning, spoilers!

The animated film Memoir of a Snail by director Adam Elliot tells the story of Grace Puddle, a withdrawn and lonely girl from Australia who, after her father's death, is separated from her twin brother Gilbert. Grace is adopted by a childless married couple, while her brother ends up in an extremely religious family that regularly torments him.

◾️In Kinopoisk's version, any hints of religion were banned. In particular, the online cinema blurred images of crosses in the church where the God-fearing family that adopted Gilbert prayed. At the same time, in 2025 the State Duma banned the removal of crosses and other symbols from images of religious sites. Violating this law can bring a fine of up to 300,000 rubles for legal entities.

◾️Also banned in Memoir of a Snail was a sign reading "Team Jesus" on the table where the children prayed, as well as the phrase "Baby Jesus is watching you." Kinopoisk even blurred the Bibles that Gilbert's foster family was reading. Film critic Timur Aliev also reported this.

◾️In addition, the censors retouched a sign reading "Beware Lucifer's lure" and his image. Apparently, this is how Kinopoisk decided to avoid accusations of promoting the nonexistent Satanism movement, which is banned in Russia. At the same time, in almost all cases the voice-over translation of the English-language signs was left intact.

◾️Grace's brother's LGBT storyline was also completely cut from the film. He turns out to be gay and grows close to his stepbrother in the foster family. After they are caught kissing, their guardian subjects the teenagers to electroshock therapy. In the release version, however, only the mention that Gilbert's stepbrother is "staring" at him remained.

At the same time, the film on Kinopoisk carries an 18+ rating.

◾️Memoir of a Snail was released in 2024, receiving an Oscar nomination and enthusiastic audience reviews. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of critics' reviews are positive. In Russia, the film did not get a theatrical release for a long time because of its content. In late February 2025, it was finally granted a distribution certificate, but the film was subjected to heavy censorship. As film critic Pavel Shvedov wrote, an "extreme kiss" was cut from it. It was also missing from the online version.

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