Touch - Iceland

An ageing widower, Kristófer, finds himself at a crossroads at the outbreak of the pandemic. He shuts his restaurant in Iceland – not just because of the pandemic but also because he knows his health is declining. Urged by his doctor to attend to any unfinished business he might have, he spontaneously embarks on a journey to seek answers to a mystery that has haunted him for a long time. 

Fifty years earlier, while Kristófer was a student in London, his Japanese girlfriend, Miko, vanished without a trace along with her dad. The couple had been working at her father's restaurant, Nippon. Kristófer turned up for work one day and was surprised to find the place empty and shut down. Nobody seemed to know what had become of the father and daughter. Kristófer was devastated. He and Miko had been head over heels in love during the vibrant summer of 1969, when young people rebelled against the structures of Western society, full of hope and with aspirations of their own.  

We follow Kristófer on a journey back to London and then to Japan, where he hopes to find answers to what actually happened. But it is also his journey down memory lane, which takes us back 50 years to when young Kristófer and Miko had their passionate affair. 

In this romantic drama, director Baltasar Kormákur tells a story, where the main character’s search for long-lost love ends up taking him on an emotional voyage back to a pivotal period in his life and physically halfway across the world.  

Through precise use of production design, strong visual elements and beautiful camerawork, the director succeeds in recreating 1960s London in a convincing way as well as contemporary Iceland and Japan. The subtle score effectively and sensitively supports the excellent performances of the actors and helps the narrative as it slowly reveals the strength of young love and how fear, created by past horror threatens the fragile beginning of a blossoming relationship. 

Although telling a tragic story of human experience, Baltasar Kormákur manages to leave the audience with a sense of hope and, yes, touched. 

After graduating as an actor from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 1990, Baltasar Kormákur became the leading young actor, the Jeune Premier, at the National Theatre for a decade, during which he learned to appreciate the theatre classics, both as an actor and a critically acclaimed director. In 2000, following his debut film as a director with 101 Reykjavík, which won multiple awards and was an international success, he started his own production company. Since then, Kormákur has focused on filmmaking – as director, writer and producer – and enjoyed great success. He is one of Europe's most prolific filmmakers and works on both sides of the Atlantic. His RVK Studios is the biggest production company in Iceland, making feature films and TV series and providing production services.

Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson has written several critically acclaimed novels, which have been translated into over twenty languages and received numerous awards. He has also held executive positions in the entertainment and technology industries. In 1991, he founded Sony Computer Entertainment and, as its CEO, was responsible for the highly successful launch of the Sony PlayStation in the United States and Europe. He later became Executive Vice President of Time Warner, where he played multiple roles in strategy, business development, partnerships, technology, mergers and acquisitions and international operations. Ólafsson was instrumental in the sale of the company to AT&T in 2018.

After 15 years working in television – in acquisitions, programming and in-house production at RUV and Channel 2 and later as Head of Production at Saga Film – Baltasar Kormákur recruited Agnes Johansen to be line producer on his second feature film, The Sea (2001). 

She subsequently joined Kormákur’s company and has produced feature films and TV series, which the company started to make in 2012. Her producer credits include Jar City (2006), The Deep (2012), Virgin Mountain (2015) and Against the Ice (2022) as well as the television series Katla (2021). 

Original title: Snerting 

International title: Touch 

Director: Baltasar Kormákur 

Screenwriters: Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, Baltasar Kormákur 

Producers: Agnes Johansen, Baltasar Kormákur 

Production company: RVK Studios 

Distribution companies: Focus Features, Universal 

Premiere in home country: 29.05.24 

Length: 120 minutes.