BERLIN: ‘Touch Me Not,’ a film about intimacy and sex that shocked some viewers with explicit scenes, won the Golden Bear prize for best film at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.
Romanian director Adina Pintilie said she had not expected to win the award for her film, which blurs reality and fiction as it follows characters who seek intimacy yet also fear it.
Speaking at a news conference after collecting her Golden Bear trophy, Pintilie said the film invited viewers to feel empathy, embrace otherness and reconsider their ideas about everything. It holds a mirror up to the audience, she said.
“This is why I think for many people this film might not be comfortable but at the same time we challenge you, the viewer, to dialogue and to look at yourself,” Pintilie said.
The Silver Bear award for best director was given to US director Wes Anderson for ‘Isle of Dogs,’ an animated movie about a Japanese city that deports its dogs to a garbage dump island during an outbreak of canine flu.
Bill Murray, who was the voice of one of the dogs, collected the award at the gala ceremony on Anderson’s behalf.
“I never thought that I would go to work as a dog and come home with a bear,” he joked as he held the Silver Bear trophy.