Breathing In
Director: Jaco Bouwer Run Time: 105 min. Release Year: 2023
Starring: Michele Burgers, Jamie-Lee Money, Sven Ruygrok
World premiere
1901, South Africa. As the Second Anglo-Boer War rages on, a wounded General seeks refuge in the small home of a woman and her young daughter. As the hurt man settles in, he begins noticing that something is off about the two women, particularly the daughter, and before long, he’ll learn the real reason for why they’ve invited him and for how they’ve survived on their own for so long.
Adapting the beloved South African play of the same name, Jaco Bouwer (Gaia) delivers a tense single-location chamber piece that steadily ratchets up the tension en route to revealing its ultimate chilling endgame. —Matt Barone