Karl Markovics' directorial debut Breathing comes to DVD and Blu-ray this September

Fans of foreign cinema can enjoy the directorial debut of veteran Austrian actor Karl Markovics this coming 10th September, courtesy of Verve Pictures. Out on both DVD and Blu-ray is Breathing (aka Atmen), starring Thomas Schubert.

Awarded the Label Europa Cinemas award for best European Film in Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, and going on to win Best Film at the Sarajevo Film Festival, this is an observational drama.

Synopsis is as follows...

Roman Kogler is 19 years old and has lived all his life in institutions. Abandoned by his mother as a young child and raised in an orphanage, he is now serving time in a juvenile detention centre having accidentally killed a boy of his own age in a brawl. A solitary boy with an uncommunicative attitude, he has no friends, family or connections to turn to in the outside world.

But when threatened with a life behind bars unless he finds a job and sticks to it, he eventually finds a probation job shifting dead bodies at the municipal morgue in Vienna. The work is physically and emotionally draining and his co-workers are not exactly welcoming.

But when Roman is one day faced with a dead woman who bears his family name, it occurs to him that this may be the mother who gave him up for adoption and he begins to explore his past.