There was some drama at the Berlin Film Festival after Romanian director Adina Pintilie’s Touch Me Not won the prestigious Golden Bear award for best film.
The film is described by The Hollywood Reporter as “following a 50-something woman with intimacy issues who visits a call boy, sex therapist and even a bondage club as she explores her sexuality.” Because of the unflinching and very graphic nudity that is at the core of Touch Me Not, the industry trade labeled the selection for the film festival as “not a safe choice.”
Certainly, there were safer choices, like Wes Anderson’s crowd-pleasing stop-motion animated feature, Isle of Dogs. (Anderson did pick up a best director honor.) But critics did feel that Touch Me Not was a symbolic film on female empowerment and diversity in this #metoo era.
The head of the Berlinale Jury, German director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), defended the choice. “We wanted to award prizes not just for what cinema can do and where it is but where it could go in the future,” he said.
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