User Reviews

There is no 'love' in this subtle treatment of emotional dysfunction. All the characters will alienate you and are to all intents and purpose 'alienated' in their own lives and roles. Nevertheless, even the hardest officials show a restrained generosity towards the troubled youth Kolger as he fights and struggles against them. The marvel is that once the cause of Kolger's anger is revealed you will completely understand his position, why he has grown with such a sour view of the world. This is not an upbeat movie but it will make you reconsider why it is that troubled people lash out. They may not really know why either, but you can bet there has been a precursor that 'sets them up'. Full marks for illustrating this process without moralising. This film deserves a wider audience - show it to some troubled people, it'll give them cause to hope for a better life.

I fought hard not to fall in love with this movie, but I lost that battle. Words seem inadequate to describe a movie that communicates so effectively with very few words, words that only hold the story together but never carry the full weight of its power. But all I have here is words, so I must try.

Breathing is the story of Roman Kogler, a 19-year-old inmate of a juvenile detention center where he has lived since he was 14 and killed a boy who had been bullying him. Roman was given up by his overwhelmed teenage mother soon after his birth (she had almost killed him to stop his crying) and has spent his whole life in orphanages and group homes, where the bullying incident occurred.

He is almost catatonic, with no idea how to relate to other human beings. He's like a wounded wild animal held in a cage, never looking anyone in the eye and almost never speaking; I didn't count, but I'd be surprised if he said more than 50 words in the whole movie. Inside the tortured, terrified shell is a sweet and gentle boy tired of being alone but with no idea how to come out; a chance encounter with an American girl on a train is especially touching and lovely.

Thomas Schubert, the totally inexperienced actor who plays him (never even in a school play, and went to the audition only because a friend he wanted to see was going) does it all with his eyes, his face, and his body language. To say it's a powerful performance is a pitifully inadequate understatement. He is amazing.

This is a very, very great movie, the first feature written and directed by Austrian actor Karl Markovics. It is quiet and unpredictable and deeply moving, with none of the cheap emotional manipulation, gut-wrenching melodrama and gratuitous plot twists I was afraid of after a lifetime of watching American movies. Breathing is beautiful, simple, powerful and profoundly satisfying.

The themes of life and death and brilliantly elaborated through breath and suffocation. It is no accident that the film name is "Breathing".

Through the use of recurring themes to elaborate on psychological drama this movie strongly reminded me of the also very good "Don't Look Now" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069995/ where red, the color of blood, water and fall are in a constant interplay with the ideas of life, death and sorrow.

In this case breathing means life, and deep in the swimming pool is the perfect place to evade from it, to leave it outside. By spending a good deal of time there you can quit life for good. But no.

This young taciturn boy, who for the lack of meaningful ties contacts didn't learn how to express himself, carries on. It is the power of the indomitable human spirit that in spite of mounting difficulties and tons of hesitation doesn't quit.

He was raised in an orphanage and the lack of support is there to be seen almost every time. It is there when he is deep down in the pool, or when he cries. Boys don't cry, even more so in prison.

He has to make amendments. He does time for killing a boy - who was trying to suffocate him - and also his mother he only gets to know aged 19.

It is a lot to do for something lacking the proper tools, but intentionally or not, the work at a mortuary helps him deal with his own suicidal impulses and the death he caused.

It is an overall sad movie, but also an inspiring one about how life can prevail. Kroger, the boy, speaks very little through this piece but that doesn't make his acting any less convincing or expressive. Thumbs up for the director, too, who pull a seamless and very aesthetic work.

"Atmen" or "Breathing" is an Austrian movie in the German language from 2011, so it had its 5th anniversary last year. It is the first filmmaking work for Karl Markovics, one of Austria's finest actors. You may know him from playing the main character in the Oscar-winning "Die Fälscher". So yeah, it is his rookie effort, but by now he has made another film already. But back to this one here. It received a great deal of awards recognition, for example at the Austrian Film Awards, but it got also picked to represent Austria at the Oscars where it was, however, not nominated. Young lead actor Thomas Schubert, who also won an Austrian Film Award for his performance, is probably not yet known to many, but German(language) film buffs will recognize at least Georg Friedrich, who plays one of the major supporting players, namely the protagonist's boss. And Markovics of course.

This is the story of a young man who commits a terrible crime that gets him to jail and the movie is about how he comes to terms with what he did. A lot of it has to do with his work at a morgue where he gets an entirely new perspective about life and death. Obviously, this one plot reference would not be enough for a 90-minute movie, so they did nicely in including a reference to his mother who abandoned him at a very young age and she says at one point that it was the best she has ever done and when she elaborated on this statement later on, it is an interesting reference to what the protagonist did because surrendering to the situation is always a viable option. I also liked the scene at the train with the English/American girl. Some may see it as irrelevant, but to me it offered a lot. First of all, it is the one occasion where the central character is just a teenage boy like everybody else and he experiences what life could be like if he had not done what he did and how just even the most simple things like having a beer were prohibited and on the other hand it shows that love is not (yet) in the books for him as the only woman he was looking for at that particular time was his mother.

Overall, the movie needed a while to get going and really catch my attention, but the longer it went, the more it did. It is obvious that Markovics had lots of experience with all kinds of filmmakers and he successful transformed this experience in his own craft as a writer and director, the man in charge behind the camera. So quite a revelation for a rookie filmmaker at the age of almost 50 back then. I maybe would not share the universal acclaim for Schubert as the main character, but not because he was bad or any thing, but because he just did what he had to and was pretty solid, especially for an actor his age. This film to me feels much more about the story as a whole than about individual performance and I don't think it may be right to put one above the others, only because he had more screen time. But this is not a negative point either, or at least not one that leaves a really weak note in terms of the viewing experience. Like I said earlier, what maybe bothers me the most about the film is that it takes quite a while to get going and could have worked better with a superior first half. The ending was nicely again as it shows that the film is not about who he was (we never see the attack), but about who he became. A well-rounded effort and I applaud Markovics and the rest for it. Certainly worth checking out.

Through the magnificent photography of Martin Gschlacht, we take science, right in the opening scenes, that we are facing a movie totally different then those we saw before. Initially controversial (due to the fact of stupendous interpretation of Thomas Schubert) Roman Kogler will creeping in our imagination as one more important character in movie's history. Take, for example, the scene in which, after more day of labor, he comes back to "his home" : when he observes the others passengers, as if the was trying to guess how the lives of those "unknown": Are they happy? Do they fight among themselves? Do they have enough money to sustain themselves? What are theirs aspirations (secret or not)? After all these thoughts, the final question (made in silence to himself and looking out through the glass train's window, which reflects his inner loniless): And how my life would be without having to go back to "home" = Prison? Poignant film! Karin Lischka (almost the same level of interpretation of Thomas Schubert) is simply sensational when she reveals brutally, bluntly, that she tried to kill his own son! Must-see movie for all those who enjoy a film in which the Director (Karl Markovics) seeks to dissect with a scalpel, the soul of all his characters. On a scale of 1 to 10, rating: 10 (masterpiece).

Unsurprisingly another very good foreign movie, this time a German production, "Atmen" ("Breathing"). Directed keenly by Karl Markovics, the movie is subtle, quiet, and reflective with an excellent touch. Performances were excellent and dialog was believable. Lead young actor Thomas Schubert follows the excellent direction and gives a quietly strong performance. One of the things I enjoyed is the storytellers went away from making the juvenile too edgy or loud. Rather he is contemplative and slowly remorseful, and yet human enough to overstep boundaries and sometimes challenge authority. This movie is a winner, and one of the better I've seen. Recommended 8/10

In the Buddhist tradition, breathing grounds us in the present moment. According to Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, "Breathing opens the door to stopping and looking deeply in order to enter the domain of concentration and insight." For Roman Kogler (Thomas Schubert) in Karl Markovics remarkable debut film Breathing, it is simply the means to avoid suffocating in a world in which, even at the age of nineteen, he has already suffered many losses. Written and directed by Austrian actor Karl Markovics (The Counterfeiters) and winner of the best film award at Directors' Fortnight in Cannes last year, Breathing is the story of a sullen young man waging a lonely battle to recover his selfhood.

Having grown up in an orphanage after being abandoned by his mother (there is no mention of his father), Roman has spent the last five years of his life in a juvenile-detention center for the killing of a young bully. "I didn't murder him, he died in hospital," he proclaims. Taciturn to the point of mute, Roman does not know much about life outside the confines of his protective but non-stimulating environment. His life consists of reading travel magazines, smoking, sleeping, and swimming. Even when he is swimming, he is alone. The other boys line up outside the pool and wait for him to get out. Hesitant and afraid, he masks his fear with a swagger, but no one is fooled.

To have a chance at getting out, Roman is told by his parole officer that he must show that he can hold a steady job. Let go from his tryout as a welder because he refused to wear a helmet, he is hired to be a mortuary attendant after answering an ad, but emotionally he is barely distinguishable from the corpses and is treated shabbily by his robot-like co-workers who know he is in detention. He hangs on, however, knowing that this may be his last chance for parole. Slowly, he learns how to perform better at his job and the negative attitude of the harshest co-worker changes to one of support, depicted in a tender sequence where they wash and dress the body of an older woman together while her daughter waits outside the room.

Every day, Roman must get up at the crack of dawn to take the train into Vienna where he passes by a huge billboard advertising a vacation that ironically implores us to "dive into adventure." When he returns each evening, he has to undergo a humiliating strip search. Something finally clicks for him when he deals with a corpse who has his same last name. Suddenly motivated, he tracks down his mother (Karin Lischka) to confront her about the reason she gave him up at birth. When she tells him that "it was the best thing I ever did in my life," he is understandably stunned. Though the mood of the film is mostly solemn, there is a lovely scene on the subway where a young American girl sits next to Roman and they share a beer together (which he is not allowed to do).

Though he knows he will never see her again, it is the first time he has smiled during the movie and it signals a process of awakening. In Breathing, Markovics has woven a potentially sentimental tale into a film that is grounded in subtlety and nuance. Though raw and, at times bleak, it is a work that is laced with a gentle compassion, and the touching performance of non-professional actor Thomas Schubert is a revelation. Though he still has a long way to go, the panning shot of cinematographer Martin Gschlacht transporting us high above the grey city, above its cemeteries, above its jails and its claustrophobic environment suggests that Roman can now be tall as the sky and, for the first time, wide enough to embrace what it means to be free.

Spoiler from the beginning.

You can say this is a film about growing up and look back at the choices one makes. But not really as the director explained Q&A at tiff 2011--> it is about breathing - an sign of life. He goes on to say this is about how one did not know the tools of life finds out about these tools .. so (I'm adding here) this person can deal with life.

But the choices made from each frame are just about perfect. The sound cuts, the perspectives of the camera, the slow information, the choice for the lead actor, a 17 yr old at the time. He is amazingly good.

And it is not easier to watch some parts of this due to the nature of the job the lead protagonist, who is a youth offender. He chose to work in a morgue of all places. But you see what he is trying to do, slowly (and that's the key) as YOU get to know him.

Of course the direction is assure. It takes its own time in scenes. Telling just enough, again not in a hurry for information overload.

Great job.