TOUCH ME NOT

a film by ADINA PINTILIE

2018/ 125’ / Romania – Germany – Czech Republic – Bulgaria – France
 

NEW YORK TIMES:

“Bodies as wonderland… intense, hard to forget…”
 

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:

“A relentlessly immersive tour de force… eye-opening… striking for its intelligence, and originality.”
 

INDIEWIRE:

“Radically humane.. an unclassifiable film .. a bold treatise about the strange (and often estranged) relationship humans have with their own bodies.“
   

LOS ANGELES TIMES:

A mesmerizing look at intimacy… unconventional… about the healing power of bodily contact.”
   

GIONA A NAZZARO Director

VENICE CRITICS WEEK:

“With an extreme courage – both formal and political, Adina Pintilie creates a film-object that escapes all current categorizations. A radical challenge brought to the binary system of sexual discourse and its dominant necropolitics, Touch Me Not invites us to embark in a profound journey.”
   

SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG:

“A movie that rewires the synapses of the viewer.”
 

SIGHT & SOUND:

“A brave experiment…” 
   

KINO ZEIT:

“This is not just a movie. It’s an experience. So intimate and so profound… a self-discovery trip.”
   

LES INROCKUPTIBLES:

“A film of a rare singularity… cinema as a therapeutic experience… an overwhelming interrogation on the body and its desires.”
   

DIE WELT:

”Those who will have the strength to experience it fully, will be rewarded with a new perspective on the world.”
   

CRITERION CAST:

“One of 2018’s great discoveries. It’s films like this that make cinema the boundary-pushing medium it has become.”
   

SPIEGEL:

“Idiosyncratic and substantially courageous cinema which touches you in the best sense.”
   

DIE ZEIT:

“A never-ending initiation into touching… We the viewers become ourselves participants in this journey inwards.”

 

Produced by: MANEKINO FILM (Bianca Oana, Philippe Avril, Adina Pintilie)

 

Co-producers: PINK – CZ (Radovan Sibrt & Alzbeta Karaskova) // AGITPROP – BG (Martichka Bozhilova) // ROHFILM PRODUCTIONS – DE (Benny Drechsel) // LES FILMS DE L’ÉTRANGER – FR  (Philippe Avril) Sales agent: DOC&FILM International (now The Party Film Sales)

 

Financed by: EURIMAGES, MEDIA Creative Europe, MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Romanian Film Fund, Czech Film Fund, Bulgarian Film Fund, Strasbourg Regional Fund, TORINO Filmlab, HBO Romania, TVR Romanian Television Society •  with the support of SENSIBLU & Christian Tour • in cooperation with THE POST REPUBLIC &  Studio BYSTROUŠKA

 

Distributed in cinemas in over 40 territories: Germany, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, UK, US, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia etc

 

AWARDS & FESTIVALS


 
  • Golden Bear and GWFF Best First Feature Awards at Berlinale 2018
 
  • Nominated for the EUROPEAN DISCOVERY – Prix FIPRESCI at the EFA European Film Awards 2018
 
  • US cinema launch at MOMA Museum of Modern Art New York 2019
 
  • Karlovy Vary 2018, Toronto 2018, Sydney 2018, Sofia 2018, Sarajevo 2018, BFI London Film Festival 2018, Viennale 2018, Jerusalem 2018, Moscow 2018, Istanbul 2018, Festival de Nouveau Cinema Montreal 2018, Rio de Janeiro 2018, Sao Paolo 2018, Mumbai 2018, CPH PIX Copenhagen 2018, Helsinki Love & Anarchy 2018, Reykjavik 2018, Seville European Film Festival 2018, Hong Kong 2018, Vilnius Kino Pavasaris 2019, Best First Feature Award – Portland Film Festival US 2018 and many others
 
  • UK cinema launch at ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts London 2018
 
  • Best Debut Feature at the Romanian Film Industry GOPO Awards 2020
 
  • Special Jury Prize at the Romanian Filmmakers Union Awards 2019
 

SYNOPSIS


Tell me how you loved me, so I understand how to love.
 

Together, a filmmaker and her characters venture into a personal research about intimacy. On the fluid border between reality and fiction, TOUCH ME NOT follows the emotional journeys of Laura, Tomas and Christian, offering a deeply empathic insight into their lives. Craving for intimacy yet also deeply afraid of it, they work to overcome old patterns, defense mechanisms and taboos, to cut the cord and finally be free.

 

TOUCH ME NOT looks at how we can find intimacy in the most unexpected ways, at how to love another without losing ourselves.

 

CAST & CREW


  • with: LAURA BENSON, TÓMAS LEMARQUIS, CHRISTIAN BAYERLEIN, GRIT UHLEMANN, ADINA PINTILIE, HANNA HOFMANN, SEANI LOVE, IRMENA CHICHIKOVA, DIRK LANGE
 
  • written, directed and edited by ADINA PINTILIE 
 
  • director of photography GEORGE CHIPER-LILLEMARK 
 
  • music EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN & IVO PAUNOV vocals DIANA MIRON
 
  • sound designer DOMINIK DOLEJŠÍ 
 
  • sound mixer BERNHARD MAISCH, MAREK POLEDNA, DOMINIK DOLEJŠÍ  
 

DEVELOPMENT –  AWARDS / WORKSHOPS / RESIDENCIES


ARTE France Cinema Award – Cinemart Rotterdam Film Festival 2011/ Main Production Award – Torino Filmlab 2011/ Cinefondation Atelier – Cannes Film Festival 2012/ Cinelink Post-production Award at Sarajevo International Film Festival 2016/ MEDIA Creative Europe Development Grant 2011 – The project with the highest number of points in the Single Project Category/ VENICE Gap financing Market 2016 / Nipkow Program Berlin 2011 / Binger Filmlab Amsterdam 2011 / S.E.E. Cinema Network

 

STILLS


 

ARTWORK: poster


   
2018

year of production

125 min

running time

DCP

exhibition format

1:1.85

aspect ratio

5.1 surround

sound

English

language

English

subtitles

Category
by Adina Pintilie - 2018 / 125’