The Saturday afternoon crowd was seated for “Touch,” Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur’s foray into the dramatic after a career filming “shoot-em-up” action films, according to festival guest and movie critic Nell Minow.
Minow referred to “Touch” as a “deeply personal” project for Kormákur, following an Icelandic man with an eroding memory as he goes on a journey to reconnect with his first love.
An international co-production between Iceland, the U.S. and the U.K., “Touch” was released in 2024, making the shortlist for Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards.
Minow noted the film’s early pandemic setting, with “Touch” explicitly taking place in March 2020. She connected the film’s themes of empathy and memory to the tumultuous early stages of the pandemic, encouraging audiences to bring their experiences into the movie.
A panel after the show featured Ebertfest projectionists James Bond and Joaquin de la Puente, introduced by festival co-founder and producer Chaz Ebert.
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Bond and de la Puente shared stories of their work with Roger Ebert, recalling him saying, “Tell me what you want, and I’ll give it to you.” Ebertfest was founded in 1999 by the late Roger Ebert and his wife Chaz Ebert, and both were instrumental in the development of the festival into the event it is now.
Minow returned to the stage alongside journalist Brenda Butler and architectural landscaper Douglas A. Williams. Williams related his time studying Japanese at the University to the film’s exploration of Japanese culture, with protagonist Kristofer spending his time in flashbacks learning Japanese to better communicate with his paramour Miko.
Williams also explained the importance of Japanese architecture in the film, with the Japanese restaurant at the heart of Kristofer’s story sharing a resemblance to the University’s Japan House with its open courtyards and ground-level features.
The film itself struck a chord with audiences, with Kristofer and Miko’s poignant and melancholy connection evoking personal memories for some. First-time Ebertfest attendees Leonard and Sarah Bennett shared their own connection to the film.
“Seeing how a connection like that can change or not change over time, especially between two people from different worlds, it’s not something we see in the movies often,” Sarah Bennett said. “The focus today is on the younger love stories, and of course, that’s only natural.”
The Bennetts, married for almost 50 years, were particularly affected by the film’s setting and period, taking place in both the late 1960s and the midst of the pandemic in 2020.
“The first couple months when we were back in the house all day, it was a lot of going through old memories, old pictures and movies,” Leonard Bennett said. “The man in the movie unpacking all those boxes of letters was very accurate, definitely something we’ve done before.”
The impact of “Touch” wasn’t just limited to longtime moviegoers, though. While it wasn’t attendee Sophia Vega’s first time at Ebertfest, she referred to “Touch” as “one of her favorite (movies) I’ve seen here so far.”
“Most of the movies I’ve seen here are bigger, louder experiences,” Vega said. “It was nice to see something more intimate, I guess.”
The crowd for “Touch” was a more subdued one than the evening’s later screening of “The Hangover” would produce. Still, Minow and the panelists emphasized the value of a more romantic presentation like Kormákur’s.
“I started thinking of young love differently,” Chaz Ebert said. “We are so impassioned, so full of life, so full of hope, so full of dreams, that now I think of young love as different. I think it’s a love that should be celebrated.”
