filmbore pick of the week - Breathing

Breathing (Atmen)

Director: Karl Markovics
Screenplay: Karl Markovics
Starring: Thomas Schubert, Georg Friedrich, Gerhard Liebmann, Karin Lischka
Year: 2011
Language: German
UK rental release: 10th September 2012

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We're staying in Austria this week, following my review of Michael Haneke's Hidden last time around, for another of the country's recent successes. Also screened at the Cannes Film Festival (this time in 2011) and similarly being submitted for the Oscars (the 84th, making the nominations but brutally missing out on the shortlist), Karl Markovics moving picture illustrates the troubles of a young man lost in isolation and struggling for meaning.

Roman Kogler (bright newcomer Thomas Schubert) grew up in an orphanage, never really knowing his mother. He's currently being held at a juvenile detention centre for manslaughter, hailed from an event that took place when he was only fourteen. He is frequently released, however, so that on occasion he can get involved in any work he can find, and any that he eventually cannot uphold. The only brevity of calm bestowed on him are his times in the prison swimming pool, clouding his mind from the world around him and gifting him moments of peace.

We join Roman at a point building up to his next parole hearing, which is a choice opportunity for him to bear his current state of mind. He's a loner; silent and simmering, unsure of his worth. Our lead is a petulant young soul, quick to shirk orders given from his elders. Yet, a looming chain of events and choices will impact his life in ways he cannot foresee while clouded behind his protective, cantankerous shell.

First of these moments is the uncanny decision he makes on his next term of employment - he makes an interesting selection for an occupation at a large undertaking firm, which could provide a redemptive attempt at rehabilitation. His new work colleague, Rudolf (Georg Friedrich, North Face, My Best Enemy), takes an instant dislike to him, seeing only the crime's he must have committed instead of the tortured soul buried just beneath the surface like one of their newly prepared cadavers.

Roman will have to handle these fresh challenges with care in order to present a reformed version of himself at his up-and-coming hearing - especially as he confronts more than just the remains of previous lives with a burning internal view of his own.

Actor Karl Markovics, famously known for his breathtaking turn as Salomon Sarowitsch in The Counterfeiters, takes his debut in the director's chair for Breathing. Holding his hand through this new journey is cinematographer Martin Gschlacht, one of Austria's finest lensmen. 

Together, they have constructed an elegant venture into the realms of pure art house; symbolic in both it's static and smooth shots, paired with clean yet sometimes natural lighting. It's been done plenty of times before, but there's no ignoring the exquisite symmetrical shots during the transitional pieces either. In fact, the camera work is so direct, that it makes the film approachable even to those normally opposed to artistic pieces. The combination of the visual symmetry and the absoluteness of the filming give a crisp template to the whole picture.

These techniques visible in their immediacy allow for swift character establishment, which for our lead is almost instantaneous provided by his fierce reaction in the opening shot, plus his added stubbornness in the following scene. Thomas Schubert, also debuting, calmly paints an intriguing creature as Roman, quietly alarming with brief moments of edge and intolerance. The course he takes throughout the tale slowly burdens you as you are taken into his mercurial being, with a need to understand his plight.

Through handling death, Roman is learning to appreciate life, gradually changing his outlook as he gains more respect from the departed. His responsiveness to orders improves as he evolves and relents; possible through the sheer bluntness and clinical approach to undertaking. Schubert confidently presides this path as Roman so intimately it's difficult to picture any other young man playing the part.

It's looking into the character of Roman's handling of his gentle transition that calls into question the theme of the piece. The "Breathing" in the title originally derives from the direction he is given when handling the smell of the deceased. His times in the detention centre's pool offer a break from the repetitive hauls of this work and of imprisonment - a place for him to flow and be free, if ever so briefly. How he breathes in swimming and work builds his defence and strength, while allowing him to handle orders from his superiors without rebellion. 

Also, he can express his feelings more fully, allowing the breathing to open his heart and mind, tapping into his true inner emotional bearing. This is vital, as Roman has difficulty with direct contact or anyone at close-quarters, with is desire for some "breathing space" lending to this whole theme. In fact, I feel that it is his gradual forgiving of this claustrophobic trait that is the basis of his improvement as a human being. 

Really, breathing really means what it usually does - as a key to survival. And for whatever reasons it's required for from a practical level, emotionally it's a method for staying calm. But there is a deeper, truer meaning behind the film's title that you can only understand near the film's end.

It's clear to see why Schubert won the Best Actor at the Sarajevo Film Festival last year, along with the film winning the gong for best film at the same event. This is a patient and eloquent film, which manages it's source with grace and presents a raw insight into the mind of a lonely but turbulent individual.

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