Karl Markovics's "Atmen" ("Breathing" in English) focuses on a youth's emotional awakening and the issue of morality in our lives. The movie both gives the viewer a glimpse into the youth's life as he gets a job as a mortuary attendant while still in a juvenile detention center, but also how he has to confront the crime that put him juvie. There are also several shots of the environs of Vienna. I thought that the most effective scenes were the train, showing him going to and from the juvenile detention center, and how the advertisement comes into view, or vanishes.I'd say that this was the right movie for Austria to submit for its nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Addressing matters of incarceration, ethics, and relationships, it hits the right notes.

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.

This is a movie about guilt, dreams, redemption and ultimately hope. You won't like 18 year old Roman Kogler at first. He is sullen, uncommunicative, and in prison. Nobody else seems to like him either. He doesn't like himself. Beset by inner demons, he has committed some unspeakable crime. His only ally is the probation officer who is helping him to find a job that will convince a parole board that Roman is worthy to be released back into the community. Through the course of the movie we learn that he is a boy who has been dealt a bad hand in life. Brought up in care, he has been a lost soul who made a tragic mistake that caused him to spend his teenage years in detention. A job in the city morgue proves to be the turning point in the movie, and in his life. This job is the symbol of his eventual redemption. As his prison peers turn away from him in disgust at his choice of job, his equally wary co-workers, initially sceptical at having a convicted criminal in their midst, soon become accepting of the boy, and eventually encourage him to develop in his new role. A stroke of fate during a call-out one day, leads Roman down a path of self-discovery, which will help him to understand why he became the person he now is, and allows the audience to explore the damaged relationship, which needs to be repaired before the boy can address his inner demons and move on with his life. This is stark, often graphic, but never dull. You will end up liking Roman. As he understands what has brought him to this point in his life, he begins to like himself more. He exhibits an inner strength and confidence that belies his young years. You can be sure he will make a success of himself, in spite of the bad start that life offered him.