Touch Me Not, the debut feature film of Romanian director Adina Pintilie, has been selected in the official competition of the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).

The movie will have its premiere in Berlin on February 22.

Filmed over a 10-week period between 2015 and 2017, with a mixed cast of professional actors and real people, Touch Me Not brings together people from across 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 follows the emotional journeys of three people in their search for intimacy. It’s a personal exploration that questions the preconceived ideas people have about intimacy as a fundamental aspect of human existence.

Touch Me Not is the first part of a future multi-platform art project, supported among others by the Center Pompidou in Paris, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and the Leipzig Spinnerei Art Center.

A graduate of the National University of Theater and Cinematography in Bucharest, Adina Pintilie is a young Romanian film director awarded in several prestigious festivals around the world. Her documentary Don’t Get Me Wrong premiered in Locarno 2007 – Filmmakers of the Present Competition, was screened at 2007 IDFA – Best of Fests, and won the Golden Dove Award for Best Documentary at Dok Leipzig 2007. It was also selected/awarded in over 50 international film festivals in Thessaloniki, Montpellier, Trieste, Namur, Documenta Madrid, Munchen, Koln, Moscow, Sarajevo, Warsaw, Krakow, Docupolis Bercelona, South by South West US, and Lodz.

Pintilie’s most recent medium-length film Oxygen premiered in the 2010 Rotterdam Tiger Awards Short Film Competition, and was also screened in various international festivals.

Romanian movie Ana, mon amour, directed by Calin Peter Netzer, won a Silver Bear at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com