Mr. Nesher, a popular filmmaker who bundles heavy themes and cultural touchstones into a palatable package, conveys how secrets and suspicions come naturally to those who undergo unspeakable suffering, but he also devotes attention to Arik's harmless adolescent angst over Tamara.
Initially considered a cult show, it turned into a pop culture touchstone that tapped into public mistrust of governments and large institutions and embraced conspiracy theories and spirituality.
The administration's apparent willingness to help usher Russia into the W.T.O. would be another touchstone in a wider give-and-take on matters of world import between Russia and the United States, under an administration policy known as the reset.
The eventual time-travel story line is reminiscent of another 1980's artifact, the novels of Philip K. Dick, which were adapted into touchstone films of the 80's and 90's like "Blade Runner" and "Total Recall".
(The book was published in Germany in 1955 and quickly became a touchstone in German Holocaust studies, but it has never been translated into English).
A lovely, vivid actress with a rich, penetrating voice, she threw herself into this touchstone role, though there were moments when her singing sounded strained.
In some sense, Roth was like D. H. Lawrence, who suffered under a rough working-class father, demonized in "Sons and Lovers" but also turned into a touchstone of masculine authenticity.
Soon "Fiddler" turned into a touchstone for Jewishness itself, a handy pop-culture reference for everyone who evoked its name or its tunes to claim some Jewish bona fides, from Homer Simpson to Glenn Beck.
We first meet Saul emerging from incongruously leafy woodlands (Nemes has cited Elem Klimov's 1985 Come and See as a touchstone), shepherding new arrivals into the gas chambers where they will be poisoned, their bodies burned, their ashes shovelled into a river.
But just as open adoption has since become commonplace in the United States, definitions of maternity, paternity, family and genetic destiny have changed, too, turning the year-old Oregon experience into a touchstone for what will inevitably become a much larger debate.
