Claudia Rorarius: Film “Touched”: The power of touch

Only when we stop talking about differences will the gap of inequalities be overcome. Director Claudia Rorarius negotiates diversity and inclusion in her second feature film, which is set in a nursing home, by telling the anger and desire of two bodies without fear of contact. She incorporates her father’s experiences. She decided against a father-daughter story and focused on a carer and a resident assigned to her: Maria (Ísold Halldórudóttir) and the paraplegic Alex (Stavros Zafeiris).

Maria learns how to lift Alex out of bed and into his wheelchair for the daily morning routine. She washes the 34-year-old and gently strokes his back and his entire body. She looks away bashfully while touching Alex’s private area. In the next step, a nurse shows her how to insert a catheter. Their vocabulary is clinical, their actions are routine. The camera shows Alex’s member.

Alex patiently endures the procedure while Maria sheds her initial shame in order to be able to follow the work instructions. Maria is a powerful figure with her body, but her movements are soft and her voice sounds gentle when she later sings a lullaby to Alex. As a trained photographer, Rorarius skillfully highlights Maria’s corpulent body.

Aesthetically, Rorarius is based on Jen Davis’ illustrated book “Eleven Years”. Davis, who did not meet conventional beauty ideals due to her excess weight and later underwent a stomach reduction, documented her battle against the pounds, failed diets, her insecurities and her desires for eleven years. When her skin makes waves, there is a poetry in it, and Rorarius builds on that. She searched for the perfect cast for Maria for five years.

Ultimately, the director got the tip from a photographer friend (Paul Kooiker) to contact Ísold Halldórudóttir, who had already modeled for Marc Jacobs and Italian “Vogue”. Halldórudóttir has been campaigning for a body image that goes beyond conventional beauty ideals for years; the Icelandic actress is making her acting debut in “Touched”. The dancer Stavros Zafeiris also appears in a feature film for the first time. At the Locarno Film Festival the two were awarded the Golden Leopard for their acting performance.

Zafeiris impresses with his strong physicality, Halldórudóttir with her quiet playing. As Maria, she fights with all her might to ensure that Alex feels life again. She cuts his hair, takes him out into nature and shows him videos from his previous life. Maria is curious, explores Alex’s body during his daily care and tests what he feels despite his paraplegia. She massages his tattooed skin with grains of sand and also sexually intervenes, which arouses anger in Alex. As a result, the balance of power between the two protagonists changes again and again.

The closer she gets to Alex, the more Maria feels her body, her desire and her own sensuality. In a resident’s room with a cheerfully painted pink wall, Maria dances to Donna Regina’s electropop hit “Let’s pretend.” Maria turns gracefully on a ballet barre, performing the delicate arm and leg movements slowly and decisively.

For Alex, however, Maria is a useful ally who can help him escape his vicious circle of daily care. When Maria refuses, he pushes her away. Maria doesn’t talk to anyone about her forbidden relationship, you don’t get to know those around her, she dances alone and goes to a karaoke bar alone. Alex is also isolated. When he receives an unexpected visitor, Maria uses her power as a carer to get rid of the unwanted guest.

»Touched« tells the story of two outsiders and bodies who didn’t look for each other, but are confronted with each other with all their doubts, their lust and their anger. This is contrasted with images of nature as well as sober photos of everyday care.

In »Touched« the touch takes place not only physically, but also in the head. In keeping with this, Rorarius chooses Nils Frahm’s haunting piano piece “Hammers”. At first it feels like an endless loop, then through repetition of sounds it feels like a tight knot that you don’t know whether it can be untied. “Touched” is a film that, like its main characters, does not ask, but demands, confronts with its scenes and also provides space for poetry.

»Touched«, Germany 2023. Director and book: Claudia Rorarius. With: Ísold Halldórudóttir, Stavros Zafeiris. 133 min. Now in cinemas.