Atmen

Thomas Schubert is Roman Kogler, a kid who's serving time in a juvenile detention center. He has a day job as a morgue attendant. He is socially awkward and can't connect with anybody. Can he find the connection that he so desperately need?

This movie moves rather slowly. It meanders along as we follow Roman around. There isn't anything dramatic going on until the final third of the movie. So we're relying on this being a character study. A character study has major problems here. The actor is not charismatic and the character is supposed to be withdrawn. Again that doesn't make for compelling watching. A final reveal is very enlightening about his incarceration. However, I think a violent action scene at the beginning would inject much needed tension into this character. It would serve the movie much better to see the incident at the beginning rather than hear about it at the end.

Minds that have become sick from watching so much violent and mindless cinema ask for violence in their film diet. For them «Breathing» is a 'movie' in which there is no drama, nothing happens, and it is slow. But this drama is so dramatic (deliberately redundant) that to make it explicit would be cacophonic.

Roman Kogler (Thomas Schubert) was abandoned by his mother, he is 19 years old and has always lived in a reformatory, where he murdered another boy. He does not understand himself, he is lapidary, others do not like him, and I think he himself does not either; he spends long sessions in the prison pool, forcing apnea time at the bottom of the pool, putting his life in danger, but something, a hunch or perhaps the insistence of his probation counselor impels him to grow, to reach 20 and get out of the prison and his shell.

Roman is so closed to the exterior that, among all the job offers, he opts for a position in the city morgue. And day by day, he goes from one place to another with his work group, discovering what life means to others and the pain of loss, while a girl shows him that he is attractive enough and worthy of trust, a smile and a beer, sharing a pleasant trip from the morgue to the prison; a hard co-worker reveals himself as an alternate father and friend, and above all, one unexpected day something happens to him that will change his life forever, when he discovers that his biological mother has not died.

This multi-level emotional action-reaction plot of situations that reveal dark corners of the human essence was written and directed by Karl Markovics, the celebrated actor in the Oscar-winning film "The Counterfeiter." An outstanding theater, film, and TV actor, in this, his debut feature, Markovics reveals himself as a magnificent delineator of characters with notable psychological strength and richness. He had the valuable contribution of actor Thomas Schubert (who was only 17 years old when filming), in a measured, calculated and therefore surprising performance in the role of Roman; actress Karin Lischka in a composition cared for in detail, as Roman's mother, and Herbert Tucmandl's beautiful music used with measure and precision.

I recommend opening our visors to world cinemas and let the American industry with its Netflix, TV series and superheroes cool down for a while, to see if it generates good films again, as in the 1970-80s. The benefit of enjoying different cinemas is immediately felt as we start a good diet with these productions. Thus, we do not miss works like this and others that emerge in Austria, such as Michael Haneke's films, just to mention its most recognized filmmaker.

«Breathing» won the awards for best film, director, screenwriter, actor (Schubert), film editing and music from the Austrian Film and TV Industry, the prize for best European film at the Cannes film festival, the awards for best film and actor at the Sarajevo film festival, and the Best International Film award at the São Paulo festival, among many other recognitions.

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.

Karl Markovics had to work hard to escape his signature role as Stockinger, the funny sidekick in the popular TV show "Kommissar Rex". It took a lot of "serious" theater work and the leading role in Stefan Ruzowitzky's Academy Award winning "Die Fälscher" until he finally got the respect he deserved as an actor. Now Markovics goes on to prove his talents extend beyond just acting: "Atmen" is his debut as a writer and director - and he hits the bull's eye on the first try.

Apparently, Markovics has worked on a lot of script ideas over the years, but never deemed any of them good enough to be developed into a movie. Finally his wife convinced him to go through with one of those ideas, and rightfully so. "Atmen" is an artistic triumph. Not only is the script brilliantly written, but it is also flawlessly executed. The direction seems almost effortless, as if Markovics was already an old master. He seems to know intentionally what to show when, he's got a great eye for frames and unagitated pictures, and, an actor himself, he naturally knows how to direct other actors. That's not to take away from the great cast. Veteran stars like Georg Friedrich and Karl Rott don't disappoint, but the focus lies on Thomas Schubert who says a lot with just facial expressions. Obviousl,y the movie's success depended on Schubert's performance and the first time actor lives up to the task. He's a great talent. Hopefully we'll see more of him in the future.

"Atmen" is a touching and believable movie about life and death, tight-lipped, but never boring, bleak, but in the end optimistic. It's very authentic in its depiction of Vienna, its depiction of a boy who hasn't been dealt the best cards in life. And, most of all, it's got its heart in the right place. This really deserves an Oscar win - much more than "Die Fälscher" did, actually.

The actor Karl Markovics has made a beautifully low-key directorial debut with this rumination on freedom, mortality and coming-of-age and the parallels between these things. He has a gift for imbuing a 'slice of life' story with a narrative engine that supplies tension and interest despite "not much happening" on screen, and his visual style is very well developed for a debut.

His greatest gift is directing actors - the ensemble here is magnificent. But he shouldn't take all the credit for the performing here - Thomas Schubert in the lead gives one of the best debut performances I've ever seen, completely lucid, emotionally immediate and "there", creating a tangible character that, over the course of the film, we get to know as closely as a good friend. He's a total natural, but that's not to say that he lends his characterisation a calculation and rigorous emotionality on par with the best professionals. Here's hoping for a long career ahead of him.