TMN Development

Writer/ Director: ADINA PINTILIE

Producers: MANEKINO FILM (Romania), ROHFILM (Germany), UNLIMITED (France)

A personal exploration about intimacy, about the human longing and yet inability to touch and be touched, to make contact. A film that questions the notion of intimacy, the ways in which it is conventionally perceived. A film on how human beings can reach intimacy in the most unexpected ways

PROJECT HISTORY

TOUCH ME NOT won the ARTE France Cinema Award for the most promising project, at Cinemart Coproduction Market of Rotterdam Film Festival 2011 and the Main Production Award at TORINO FILM LAB Framework 2011, was selected in Atelier CINEFONDATION-Cannes Film Festival 2012, was awarded MEDIA DEVELOPMENT funding, being the best European project in the Fiction Single Project category, received production support from the Romanian Film Fund, being the best debut project, was developed within BINGER Filmlab Amsterdam (Directors Lab 2011 and Writers Lab 2009/2010) and NIPKOW PROGRAM Berlin 2011.

SINOPSYS

TOUCH ME NOT follows the emotional journeys of three people in their search for intimacy.

Laura works for years in the same mannequin factory. She peeps at other people’s intimate life, while hers doesn’t seem to function. She pays to be touched, hiring young boys to create an illusion of intimacy. Tudor is an actor who earns his living as a masseur. He wants a woman who rejects his attempts at making contact. He stalks her, finding a compensatory way to touch her through objects, places she’s touched. Paul is an actor too, caught in a dysfunctional relationship.

In the background, a “miracle” story develops, first as a TV news piece, that gradually enters the characters’ lives: in the outskirts, a simple uneducated man discovers he has a “gift”- when he touches people, he cures them, removing any illness. The Suburban Saint phenomenon grows, between irony and worship. As when he touches he gives a lot, the Saint starts losing more and more weight, until he falls ill. Street fights begin in the long lines of people waiting to be cured in front of his building, all desperate to get to him before he dies.

Laura witnesses an interactive show performed by Paul and Tudor. Fascinated by them, she keeps coming back at the performance. She gradually becomes a silent witness of their lives, their solitary longing deeply resonating with her own. In this mirroring process, the walls Laura so skilfully built around her slowly collapse under the flow of her repressed feelings.

Finally, Laura finds herself in the long line of people in front of the Suburban Saint’s flat. When she finally enters, she finds an exhausted and sick man. As he is about to touch her, blood pours from his nose and he collapses. Laura helps him up, cleans his face. Unable to move or speak, he surrenders to her caring hands. In the end he falls asleep. Laura stays there watching over him.”

TOUCH ME NOT (100’, 2014, by Adina Pintilie)

DIRECTORS BIO-FILMOGRAPHY

Adina Pintilie (b.1980, Romania) graduated in 2008 from the National University of Drama and Film Bucharest, Directing Department. At the border between fiction, documentary and visual art, her work is very particular in the new Romanian cinema landscape, standing out through a highly personal visual style, the courage to experiment in cinematic language and the uncompromising exploration of the human psyche. Her films have been screened/ awarded in prestigious festivals all over the world. Her medium length Don’t Get Me Wrong (supported by ARTE France and the Romanian Cinema Center) premiered in Locarno 2007 – Filmmakers of the Present Competition, screened at 2007 IDFA – Best of Fests, won the Golden Dove Award for Best Documentary at Dok Leipzig 2007, was selected/awarded in over 50 international film festivals like: Thessaloniki, Montpellier, Trieste, Namur, Documenta Madrid, Munchen, Koln, Moscow, Sarajevo, Warsaw, Krakow, Docupolis Bercelona, South by South West US, Lodz etc. Pintilie’s last medium length film Oxygen premiered in the 2010 Rotterdam Tiger Awards Short Film Competition, and also screened in various international festivals like BAFICI, Montpellier, Thessaloniki, Tampere, Bilbao, Cork etc. Adina Pintilie also made 6 short films that had been screened/ awarded in a large number of film festivals, both national and international. Her last short, Sandpit#186 (co-director George Chiper) premiered in Locarno 2008, Author’s Shorts section, won the Runner Up Award at the Miami IFF 2009 and a Special Mention in Trieste 2009.

PRODUCTION COMPANIES PROFILES

MANEKINO FILM (producer: Bianca Oana) is a Bucharest based production company, that sets an official frame for the 9 years of creative team work in cinema field of its founders, the filmmakers Adina Pintilie and Marius Iacob. Recent productions: OXYGEN (40’, 2010, writer/director Adina Pintilie)- festivals: Tiger Awards for Shorts Competition Rotterdam 2010, BAFICI 2010, Montpellier 2010, Thessaloniki 2010, Bilbao ZINEBI 2010, Warszaw 2010, Tampere 2011 etc, Best European Short Film ward – In Drama Greece 2011 and Best Short Film Nominee at the Romanian Film Industry Awards GOPO 2011; 24 BUCKETS, 7 MICE, 18 YEARS (40’, 2012, writer/director Marius Iacob) – festivals: Visions du Reel IDFF Switzerland 2012, Silver Dragon Award – Krakow 2012, European Documentary Network Talent Grant – Sarajevo 2012, Dok Leipzig 2012, Taiwan Documentary IFF 2012, Thessaloniki Documentary IFF 2013, Tampere 2013, etc

ROHFILM (Benny Drechsel) is a German independent production company with offices in Berlin and Leipzig. In the recent years, ROHFILM produced and coproduced films like: LORE, by Cate Shortland – Audience Award Locarno 2012, CHILDREN, by Aida Begic – Cannes Un Certain Regard 2012, THE SLUT, by Hagar Ben Asher – Semaine de la Critique Cannes 2011, UN MUNDO MISTERIOSO, by Rodrigo Moreno – Berlinale Competition 2011, THE RIVER USED TO BE A MAN, by Jan Zabeil – Berlinale Panorama 2011, New Directors Award – San Sebastian IFF 2011, JAFFA by Keren Yedaya – Cannes 2009, SALAMANDRA, by Pablo Aguero – Quinzaine des Realisateurs Cannes 2008, SNOW, by Aida Begic – Grand Prix Semaine de la Critique Cannes 2008.

More info on: www.rohfilm.de

UNLIMITED (Philippe Avril) is a French production company, coproducing internationally in many countries in Europe, Africa and Asia arthouse creative documentary and feature films. The films produced since 2008 include: THE FIFTH SEASON, by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth – Arca Cinema Giovani Award and the Green Drop Award in Venice IFF 2012, LA FIN DU SILENCE, by Roland Edzard – Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes 2011; MUSHROOMS, by Vimukthi Jayasundara – Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes 2011; THE DITCH by Wang Bing – Official Competition Venice 2010; BETWEEN TWO WORLDS, by Vimukthi Jayasundara – Official Competition Venice 2009; TEZA, by Haile Gerima – Special Prize of the Jury, Osella for the Best Screenplay Venice 2008