''Where Hands Touch'' is a 2018 romantic

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film directed and written by

Amma Asante Amma Asante (born 13 September 1969) is a British filmmaker, screenwriter, former actress, and Chancellor at Norwich University of the Arts, who was born in London to parents from Ghana. Her love for the film industry started when she received ...

and starring

Amandla Stenberg Amandla Stenberg (born October 23, 1998) is an American actress. She was included in ''Time''s list of Most Influential Teens in both 2015 and 2016, and has received several accolades, including a Teen Choice Award, an NAACP Image Award, and n ...

, George MacKay,

Abbie Cornish Abbie Cornish (born 7 August 1982) is an Australian actress. Cornish is best known for her film roles as Heidi in ''Somersault'' (2004), Fanny Brawne in '' Bright Star'' (2009), Sweet Pea in ''Sucker Punch'' (2011), Lindy in '' Limitless'' (20 ...

Christopher Eccleston Christopher Eccleston (; born 16 February 1964) is an English actor. A two-time BAFTA Award nominee, he is best known for his television and film work, which includes his role as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in the BBC sci-fi series '' ...

, and Tom Sweet. It was produced by Charlie Hanson, and tells the story of Leyna (Stenberg), a

biracial Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

girl under threat because of her race, due to her living in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. The film is a British Belgian Canadian and Irish co-production. Principal photography on the film began in November 2016 in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and lasted for a month, wrapping up in December 2016. ''Where Hands Touch'' premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

on 9 September 2018. It was released theatrically in the United States on 14 September 2018 by

Vertical Entertainment Vertical Entertainment is an American film distribution and production company founded by producers Richard B. "Rich" Goldberg and Mitch Budin in 2012. History In 2012, Rich Goldberg & Mitch Budin founded Vertical Entertainment, a film distribut ...

. It received mixed reviews, with praise directed at Stenberg's performance, and criticism toward its screenplay.

Synopsis

The film is a rite-of-passage story of a biracial teenage girl falling in love with a member of the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

and struggling for survival in Nazi Germany. The protagonist, Leyna, is portrayed as a German nationalist, and antisemite. Lutz is the son of a high ranking SS officer, and is initially an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth. After Leyna and Lutz fall in love, she becomes pregnant. However, she gets sent to a Nazi labour camp where she must keep her pregnancy secret (as she is supposed to have been sterilized). Lutz is also stationed at the camp as an SS guard. After a bombing by the Americans, he attempts to escape with Leyna but he is killed by his father. Leyna, shocked, stays still on the ground until an American soldier comes to take her. Seven weeks later, she is heavily pregnant and she is in the displaced area where she reunites with her mother and brother.

Cast

as Leyna * George MacKay as Lutz *

as Kerstin *

as Heinz * Tom Sweet as Koen

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

on the film began in November 2016 and wrapped up in December 2016 after shooting took place in Belgium (Werister coal mine) and the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

Release

On 20 May 2017,

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) is a specialty film division of Sony Pictures. The company specializes in acquiring and producing films for a wide variety of distribution platforms. History The group became a stand-alone division of ...

acquired the international distribution rights to the film, excluding select territories in Europe and Australia. It had its world premiere at the

on 9 September 2018. It was released in the United States on 14 September 2018 by

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's consensus reads, "''Where Hands Touch'' is noteworthy for its exploration of a little-discussed corner of World War II, even if its story leaves something to be desired in the telling." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

the film has a score of 44% based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Glen Kenny of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' criticized the film for "romanticization of Nazis".

References

External links

* * {{Amma Asante 2018 films 2018 romantic drama films 2018 war drama films British romantic drama films British war drama films Films about interracial romance Films about Nazis Films shot in Belgium Films shot in the Isle of Man 2010s English-language films 2010s British films