Fall in love with romantic drama Touch, now on Showmax

Based on the bestselling novel Snerting (Touch) by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic drama Touch follows widower Kristófer’s (Egill Ólafsson, with Pálmi Kormákur as the younger Kristófer) emotional journey across space and time. He’s on a quest to find his first love – a Japanese woman named Miko (Yoko Narahashi, with Kōki as the younger Miko) who disappeared 50 years ago in London. But both time and memory are running out, as Kristófer is in the early stages of dementia, and the Covid-19 pandemic is starting to shut down international borders.

Selected as Iceland’s Oscar entry for 2026, Touch is a deeply moving love story that’ll take us from Reykjavik in Iceland, to London during the Swinging 60s, and Hiroshima in post-war Japan, along with Tokyo, Takehara and Kure. As director Baltasar Kormákur explains, it was a journey of love on every level.

Stream Touch now on Showmax.

In love with a story

Baltasar (best known to global audiences for his action thrillers including Beast, Everest and The Deep) devoured Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s novel in one sitting. “I realised this was the love story that I had been looking for. I became totally gripped by the way Ólafur travels back through time and space to connect his readers to one of history’s most horrific events,” says Baltasar. “The book explores how trauma from conflict can impact generations to come. I appreciated the gentle way he told this tale – without finger-pointing and polarised viewpoints. I thought it was a great reminder how catastrophically things went wrong at the end of World War II and how close we are to repeating the mistakes of the past.” It was a warning Baltasar felt keenly while standing in Hiroshima. “It was very powerful to be there. It is so affecting to be in a place where everything was destroyed,” he notes.

Real inspiration, real love

“I had heard many real stories about people looking for a lost lover or a loved one in the later parts of their lives,” reveals Baltasar. “Even Egill Ólafsson, who plays the old Kristófer, told me that his mother divorced his father to find her first love, with whom she then spent the last years of her life. That fact made the film’s narrative all the more real for both of us.” 

“There’s this thing about love,” adds Icelandic singer-songwriter and actor Egill. “It is an inscrutable phenomenon, and perhaps something beyond the control of us humans. We are often confused when love is in the air, and I think this man has nothing to lose when it comes to him deciding to leave everything behind, to start this mission. He is convinced that he will find something – and he will.” 

Egill was also able to connect with Kristófer’s mental and physical struggles on a deeply personal level. “Having been recently diagnosed with Parkinson Plus, Egill’s physical and mental state made shooting Touch more complicated, yet it only ended up deepening the journey,” reveals Baltasar. “Realising that Egill has some of the same health issues as his character, we chose to embrace his condition and push through any challenges. Working with Egill was an absolute delight: his body might have grown tired at times, but the artist inside Egill stayed young throughout, filled with boundless creative energy.”

Baltasar saw himself in the younger Kristófer, too. “Kristofer’s story connected with me on many levels. From my own experience, I know that things one might do early in life – out of inexperience or lack of thoughtfulness or empathy – can come back to haunt you….The need for closure becomes a heavy burden. Hopefully, Touch can speak to both young and old, those who have lost love and those who are eagerly seeking to find it.”

That personal element became even stronger when casting director Selma Björnsdóttir cast Baltasar’s son Pálmi Kormákur to play the young Kristófer. “I am uncomfortable just having my picture taken, so when I was asked to audition, I felt sick to my stomach,” Pálmi admits. “I took a few days to think about it, and landed on that I would do the audition, make a fool of myself and be done with it.” Pálmi did a lot better than expected, though, and an impressed Egill Ólafsson says, “It seems to me now that we’re quite similar. He could very well be me.” 

Stream Touch on Showmax.

Short break – visit Iceland, Japan and swinging London

London: Funny Woman

British comedian Morwenna Banks (Slow Horses, and the voice of Peppa Pig’s Mommy Pig) has adapted Nick Hornby’s bestselling novel Funny Girl into a series of the same name, directed by Oliver Parker (Johnny English Reborn). The story centres on Blackpool beauty queen Barbara Parker (Gemma Arterton) as she tries to make it as a comic actress in London at the height of the Swinging 60s. 

Binge Funny Woman Season 2.

Japan: Tokyo Vice 

Crime drama series based on the life of American Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort), who was the first non-Japanese person ever to pass the reporters’ entrance exam for one of Japan’s biggest daily newspapers, the Yomiuri Shimbun. He reported on local crime between 1993 and 2005, making contacts within the yakuza, and the Tokyo police force. The series was filmed on location in Tokyo, so travellers can look out for classic landmarks along with authentic areas seldom seen by tourists. 

Binge Tokyo Vice Season 2.

Iceland: Interstellar, and The Fate of the Furious

Chris Nolan’s time-twisting sci-fi epic starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain is set on distant planets, but it was filmed much closer to home. The area around Svínafellsjökull Glacier represented one planet, while the low-lying area of Máfabót, which is set between the open sea and a river on Iceland’s south coast, stood in for another.

The Fast and Furious family also visited Iceland for their eighth film, The Fate of The Furious, with Charlize Theron, Dwayne Johnson, and Vin Diesel. The frozen Lake Mývatn in Iceland’s North was the scene of an epic car chase at Skútustaðir, which threw a Russian submarine into the mix.

Watch Interstellar and The Fate of the Furious.