This film was released 19th October 2018, and is no longer screening.

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The surprise winner of the top prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival sees three individuals, Laura, Tomas and Christian, join director Adina Pintilie on an emotional research project to better understand the causes of, and hopefully overcome, their various issues with physical intimacy.

The director interviews her subjects by way of a video monitor which allows Pintilie to be a fourth ‘character’ in her film, as she too participates in the heightened process of self-analysis she has contrived. A quasi-documentary – Laura and Tomas are professional actors while Christian, who is disabled, appears as himself – Touch Me Not is an intriguing, somewhat unclassifiable blend of therapy and performance art which boldly challenges accepted notions of beauty. Raw and confrontational, the film is also shaded with touching moments of genuine warmth and humour.

(Notes by David O’Mahony.)

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