Perth Voice Interactive

A LOVE story spanning 51 years, Touch is a poignant tale of longing, memory, and the enduring power of first love.

At its heart is Kristofer, a 70-year-old widower from Iceland, who embarks on an emotional journey to rediscover the love that defined his youth.

As his own time on earth begins to dwindle, he is haunted by the memories of a romance that never fully faded, despite the passing of years.

Fifty years earlier, Miko, bought to London by her Japanese father (Takahashi-Sun) after Hiroshima’s nuclear holocaust, meets Kristofer as a student in London, when he comes looking for work in her father’s restaurant. 

There, amidst the washing of dishes and the cooking of monkfish, Kristofer falls in love with the beautiful, mysterious, and graceful girl. 

As he learns Japanese and the art of cooking from her father, a deep and passionate love blossoms between them.

One day Miko disappears and the restaurant closes without warning, leaving many unanswered questions.

Although Kristofer moves on in his life, Touch shows the how is life is forever altered as his love slipped away. 

Through his memories, the story of their romance unfolds. 

On a quest to find what happened to Miko, Kristofer returns to London in the midst of the Pandemic to track down Hitomi, a former restaurant colleague now living in an aged care facility. 

Hitomi finds an old letter from Miko, sending Kristofer on a mission to Hiroshima, even though the world’s borders were snapping shut thanks to Covid.

I do not want to tell you the end of the story as that would ruin it, but it shows just how true love can be enduring.

A beautiful scenic story spanning decades across cultures and continents.

4/5 chickens
by PAULA HOLLAND

DANIELE LUCHETTI’S new psychological thriller Trust certainly starts with bang as we watch an aged man prepare for suicide. 

Within moments we get a terrifying vision of the inner demon that is driving him to despair. 

The sequence primes us for a journey into the fantasies and realities of a man who experiences himself as an imposter. 

The film proceeds through episodic snippets to reveal exactly what is eating him away: a secret that he once shared with a volatile, possibly deranged, past lover.

Based on Domenico Starnone’s celebrated novel, we see a man who is much-loved in his public life as an educator and academic. 

But with every accolade he is awarded, he feels increasingly panicked at the thought of what could be revealed. 

The film’s Italian title, Confidenza carries connotations of “confidence trickster”, which is how the main character, Pietro (Elio Germano) thinks of himself.

Pietro’s life’s central preoccupation is to hold his persona together as a public intellectual, with his students, within his marriage and with his child.

All the while he is consumed by what is effectively the ultimate co-dependent relationship with a woman he has had no dealings with for years. 

In his private thoughts Pietro feels like a criminal fearing discovery. 

Can he confess to anyone? 

To do so would require commitment to genuine relationship and is he capable of that? 

He experiences himself as fatally inauthentic, lacking in integrity. 

His violent daydreams for resolving his pain erupt on the screen, jolting the audience.

The moody, beautiful soundtrack by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke using electronica and wind instruments subtlety builds the tension and conveys Pietro’s angst.

The Italian film Festival publicity says this film is a “true psychological thriller disguised as a bourgeois family drama”, which is accurate enough. 

However, it goes beyond that frame. 

It is a case study in the price of public acclaim. 

There are many Australian public figures who would feel unsettled by this film.

Incidentally, the novelist Domenico Starnone may himself be harbouring a great secret in public. 

His wife, Anita Raja is rumoured to be none other than Elena Ferrante, the pseudonym for the writer of the quartet of Neapolitan Novels. 

Possibly there is a myriad of confidences both within and outside of this film.

by BARRY HEALY

ST. ALi Italian Film Festival
October 3 – 23
Screenings at Palace Raine
Square, Luna Leederville,
LunaSX and Windsor Cinema
For the full program and tickets go to http://www.italianfilmfestival.com.au