Touch
THURSDAY 5th Dec
€10 / €8 (conc.)
Synopsis
Iceland, early 2020. Widower Kristófer’s memory has started failing, and he decides now is his last chance to track down his estranged first love. Through flashbacks, we learn Kristófer worked in a Japanese restaurant while he was a student in 1960s London. There, he met and fell in love with the owner’s daughter, Miko. Now, despite his own daughter’s pleas and looming travel lockdowns, Kristófer flies to London to find Miko – more than 50 years after she abruptly left without a goodbye.
Baltasar Kormákur’s deeply moving film is based on the novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, who also co-wrote the screenplay. This is a rich study of love and grief that’s both heartbreaking and achingly romantic.
Festival & Awards
Sydney Film Festival, 2024
Quotes
“★★★★★ Touch is an uncommonly poignant drama that balances rich sentimentality with more harrowing themes. Only cynics will resist a swoon or three.” – Hilary White, Irish Independent
“A uniquely powerful, humane film about people rebounding from the rubble of devastating losses, choosing courage and love to overcome grief.” – Courtney Howard, Variety
“Much of the film’s beauty lies in the wholesomeness of Kristofer as a character. Even as a dying man whose life didn’t go according to plan, he’s driven not by bitterness or regret, but a simple desire to find the woman he never stopped loving.” – Christian Zilko, Indiewire
Film Info
121 mins | Iceland, UK, USA | 2024 | 12A
Director:
Baltasar Kormákurv
Cast:
Egill Ólafsson, Kōki, Palmi Kormakur, Masahiro Motoki