Breathing

Veteran Austrian actor Karl Markovics wrote and directed this sensitive, emotionally moving portrait of a teenager struggling to rise above his tragic past. Nineteen-year-old Roman Kogler (Thomas Schubert) has endured a lifetime of disadvantage: charged with murder (for an accident) and halfway through his sentence in a juvenile detention center, Roman awaits his next probation hearing with little hope of release after being denied probation in previous hearings. Because Roman has no family—and ongoing difficulty adjusting to real-world responsibilities—winning his freedom seems perpetually unlikely. But he finally takes an encouraging step forward after earning a probationary job at the city morgue of Vienna, helping to transport corpses and preparing them for open casket viewing, burial, and cremation. One day, Roman sees a female corpse in a body bag bearing the name “Kogler,” and wonders if she could be his mother, who abandoned him to state care shortly after he was born. Roman is relieved when he discovers that he is not related to the dead woman, but this only prompts him to investigate his past and search for his real mother. A remarkable tale of family relations with an understated focus on deep-rooted pain, regret, and the question of forgiveness, this is highly recommended. (J. Shannon)