Touch Me Not (Sydney Film Festival Review)
- Brandon Thompson
- Jun 12, 2018
- 4 min read

Sexual identity is inherent to who we are and it’s built through intimacy. Intimacy invites vulnerability. We can only get strength by better understanding what makes us vulnerable and Touch Me Not invites you to open up and reflect. To understand who you are by opening yourself in intimate scenarios. This could be with your loved one, a meditation class, or in the case of Touch Me Not, being interviewed for a film.
The film is about Laura (Laura Benson), almost 50, who struggles with intimacy. She’s interviewed by a fictional self of this film’s director, Adina Pintilie, (and she plays herself) using a system called Interrotron. In which the interviewer sets a camera elsewhere and their image is projected to a screen in front of the camera shooting the interviewer. This causes them to look into the camera. We first see it when it’s being set up (and later being taken down) and straight away we are meant to know that this is about us just as much as it the people in the film.
At first, she watches a guy masturbate on her bed and the smells it after he leaves. Then she invites a transwoman sex worker over to and they discuss classical music and feeling comfortable with one another. This happens with the film crew present. They are even present when the sex worker pretends to put on a peep show. The other person that Laura talks to is one part sex therapist and one part BDSM enthusiast. To each one she opens up differently.
In contrast, we follow the story of a middle-aged man and another with spinal muscular atrophy. They share various sessions with another meditating (along with other couples). They synchronise their breathing and run their hands along each other. The man soon grows to see that the man that society deems could not live a full life, lives a fuller life than he does.
When the stories are combined together the film tells us that we are all sexual and that we should all be open about it. There is no good or bad when it comes to our identity but only who we are. Laura is almost 50 and asks herself “if I have 15-20 years of good health left should I keep living the same way”? This may sound like a mid-life crisis but I think it applies to people who are finding themselves in their teens and 20s. You’re trying to know yourself better and looking for all the answers to questions. Questions need to be asked before finding out the answers. As a society, I think it’s become more apparent that we need to ask questions before we decide who we are and not just letting someone else decide who you are.
You will notice how minimalist the film looks when watching. Most sets are drenched in white and the detail in frames is quite minimal. If a more aesthetically pleasing look was taken it would hinder the film. The white sets make it feel like we’re in the subconscious or even limbo. This is meant to confront us, the same way Laura is when in intimate situations.
Films confronting what it means to be human are becoming fewer and further between and ones that tackle sexuality are often relying on graphic representations and lust. It’s representation of sexuality ties into one's spirituality. This is in a non-religious way but it relates how to how we perceive ourselves. By finding a new and unique way of exploring the human condition, Adina Pintilie offers an alternate perspective that hasn’t been explored in film so far.

Often the film takes a moment to recollect itself, the same way the people in the mediation sessions do by exploring a body. The camera will slowly push in and look around for a moment. We see the tiny details such as hairs, pores, scars, etc. At the end of the day, the body is ultimately for physical pleasure but it doesn’t mean there isn’t a connection of who we are deep down on a level that we don’t want to reveal and our inanimate world.
By telling the story through a fictionalised doco the connections and ideas in the film feel naturally raw and not one of fiction. The kind of raw the characters in the film are encouraged to open up about, is the one they have kept hidden from themselves for so long that it has hopelessly become part of their identity and held them back. Connecting the film to reality tackles the prejudice of not only conventional sexual intimacy but other ways people grow closer. This could be as simple as lying in bed with one another or group sex.
Touch Me Not is a film that wants to go asking questions some of us don’t want to be asked or are just too afraid to hear. I don’t think most of the audience will like what they see but I am sure there is a percentage of people that this film will resonate with.
Overall Score: 10/10
Touch Me Not played at Sydney Film Festival with no Australian release in sight.
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Director: Adina Pintilie
Starring: Laura Benson, Seani Love, Christian Bayerlein
Cinematographer: George Chiper-Lillemark
Music: Ivo Paunov
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