“Touch Me Not“, the debut feature film of the Romanian female director Adina Pintilie, was selected for the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, thus registering a premiere: she is the first female filmmaker in Romania who enters the official competition of the renowned festival.
“Thank you for offering us the great opportunity of seeing Touch Me Not. We were all impressed, please accept my congratulations,” said the festival’s director, Dieter Kosslick, in the official invitation letter.
Shot for ten weeks during 2015 and 2017, with a mixed casting of professional artists and real persons, “Touch Me Not” is rejoining people from all around Europe: Laura Benson(UK/France), Tomas Lemarquis (Iceland/France), Christian Bayerlein (Germany), Grit Uhlemann (Germany), Hanna Hofmann (Germany), Seani Love (UK/Australia), Irmena Chichikova (Bulgaria) and Dirk Lange (Germany).
The film is a personal exploration that doubts the prejudices that we usually have about intimacy, as a fundamental aspect of the human existence.
By exploring, beyond taboos, the role that intimacy is playing in the human development, “Touch Me Not” plans to open new perspectives, to educate, to promote tolerance and freedom of speech, to create a space for self-reflection, by challenging the spectator to re-evaluate his own ideas on intimacy.
The movie has won, among others, the ARTE France Prize at Cinemart within the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the production prize at Torino Filmlab and the Cinelink Work-in-Progress within the Sarajevo International Film Festival. It was also shortlisted for the Cinelink Work-in-Progress within Cannes Festival and for the Venice Gap Financing Market at the Venice Festival.
The feature film is the first part of a future multi-platform art project, supported by the Pompidou Center in Paris, by the Romanian National Museum of Contemporary art, by the Modern Art Museum in Warsaw and by the Spinnerei Leipzig Art Center.
The preview gala is due in Berlin on February 22 at 10 p.m. The Romanian delegation’s presence is supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in Berlin.
The film is produced by Manekino Film, the Rohfilm Productions, Pink Productions, Agitrop and Les Films de L’Etranger.