Director: Karl Markovics
Cast:Thomas Schubert, Karin Lischka, Gerhard Liebmann, Georg Friedrich, Stefan Matousch, Luna Mijovic
Running Time: 90 minutes
Certificate: 15
Synopsis: Roman Kogler (Thomas Schubert) is 19 years old and has lived all his life in institutions. Abandoned by his mother as a young child and raised in an orphanage, he is now serving time in a juvenile detention centre having accidentally killed a boy of his own age in a brawl. A solitary boy with an uncommunicative attitude, he has no friends, family or connections to turn to in the outside world. But when threatened with a life behind bars unless he finds a job and sticks to it, he eventually finds a probation job shifting dead bodies at the municipal morgue in Vienna. The work is physically and emotionally draining and his co-workers are not exactly welcoming. But when Roman is one day faced with a dead woman who bears his family name, it occurs to him that this may be the mother who gave him up for adoption and he begins to explore his past.
BREATHING is the debut film from actor turned filmmaker Karl Markovics, who you may know for his thesp work on the critically acclaimed THE COUNTERFEITTERS a couple of years ago, and various other projects in his native tongue over the past twenty odd years. Here he turns his attention to writing and directing, focussing in on an Austrian set social drama concerning the life of nineteen year old Roman Kogler (Thomas Schubert), a juvenile detainee about to enter society for the very first time in his adult life after years in institutions, having been raised in an orphanage and then in a detention centre as a young adult following an accident in which he killed a young boy at the age of just fourteen.
The action, so to speak, takes place in modern day Vienna, and we are first introduced to the young Kogler within the walls of the male-only juvenile detention centre on the outskirts of the city, where he has resided for the last five years. On the brink of potential parole, Kogler is released to the outside world during daylight hours in the hope of acquiring a job with the help of a social aid. It is here where director Markovics sets up the tone of the film, and using wide-angled, but strangely highly claustrophobic ‘locked down’ camerawork, we embark on a journey where we join the young Kogler as he attempts to find a place in life.
Thomas Schubert, the young actor who portrays Kogler, is truly marvelous and hugely watchable and indeed believeable in one of his first motion picture roles, a fairly high profile lead at that; one in which he is seen on screen for every second of the film’s 90 minute running time. Most of his early scenes are dialogue free, and his story is told through other people and small visual gestures and tiny mannarisms on screen, right up until the end of at least the first reel. As soon as we journey with him past the walls of the youth prison, the camera slowly begins to free and the character slowly opens up before us too.
That camerawork is stunning from start to finish; in fact everything tech wise about the film is flawless, and because of that, hugely noticeable, in a very positive way. The largely unknown supporting cast are also outstanding, and lend a hand in making some truly quite special.
There are many plot points that I could reveal about the film, but that would spoil the experience for many hoping to see it. In fact, just by reading the above synopsis, provided by the film company I might add, reveals much more than the first act eludes to. In fact, we do not learn the details of Kogler’s crime until well into the final reel; so going into this film as unknowing and unexpecting is totally the best way to do so. That’s how I experienced it this past week.
The film has so many layers to it, and we experience feelings of guilt, social acceptance, love and the want to be loved all of the way through this entirely engaging cinematic trip. Sure, there are many metaphors to be read in there, so expect to think during this movie experience, but I will add to that, as a hardcore, mostly mainstream movie going nut, I was totally engrossed from the beginning to the very end. Call it surprised. It’s an extremely well paced, mesmerising, thought provoking, emotional journey of a movie that will stay with you for many days after, and quite possibly could be one of my favourite cinematic experiences of the year so far. I can’t recommend it enough.
BREATHING opens in selected cinemas in the UK on Friday 20th April 2012.
