Breathing

The acclaimed directorial debut from veteran Austrian actor Karl Markovics (star of the Academy Award winning the Counterfeiters), is an eloquent, affecting portrait of an incarcerated teenager (newcomer Thomas Schubert) attempting to win parole by working at a local morgue. Raised from birth in institutions, he is initially impassive and self-sabotaging in his behavior; soon, though, he begins to respect the solemn work of handling the dead, and starts to come to terms with his own youthful crime.