★★★☆☆

19 April 2012

This article is a review of BREATHING.

By Hemanth Kissoon

“You’ve never really been outside,” guard to Roman Kogler (Thomas Schubert).

Actor Karl Markovics (THE COUNTERFEITERS) makes his writing and directorial debut with an assured and taciturn look at a teenager attempting to cope. BREATHING is not just any coming-of-age story; it is a quietly melancholy coverage of a tragic background (sans depressing self-consciousness). We are expertly drip-fed why Roman is in a juvenile detention facility. The moral implications are not judged, nor are they simplistic. This is both a pretty adroit character study, as well as a questioning of individual, parental and state responsibility.

Roman’s parole hearing is approaching. To demonstrate to the decision-makers that he can be a useful member of society, he needs to hold down a job. We first him in a factory screaming when a co-worker puts a welding mask on him – such an outburst is explained much later. Instead he is drawn to an advert in a newspaper for a position, at a morgue in Vienna, moving dead bodies. In his mind perhaps the job is a means of catharsis and redemption. While getting his head round such a tough role, and dealing with a prickly colleague, Roman is also searching out the mother that gave him up for adoption. Moving at a stately pace, BREATHING packs a lot in, eschewing trite sentimentality.