Robin Cavendish seems to have everything. He is handsome, educated, extraordinarily intelligent and has a loyal wife named Diana and a baby son named Jonathan. But disaster strikes during a trip to Kenya in 1958 and he is struck down with polio, rendering him unable to move any of his limbs or even breathe by himself. At just 28, he believes his life to be over as he is flown back to England only to lie in another hospital bed on a respirator. But it is his wife who encourages him to keep on living.
She removes him from hospital and returns him to the comfort of his own home, while his Oxford graduate friend Teddy Hall begins work on a special wheelchair with a mobile respirator which would allow Robin to travel. His long-term survival exceeds all doctors' expectations, and far from his life being over, he becomes a staunch activist for disabled people and helps in the development of numerous devices that would go on to improve the quality of life of responauts (as such people as him are dubbed) a thousand-fold.
'Breathe' is a romantic biopic based on the life of the real Robin Cavendish - a man who did extraordinary things with a diagnosis that would have killed most people within a few years - and his fiercely faithful wife Diana who nursed and encouraged him. It has been directed by accomplished actor Andy Serkis (star of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens', 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' and 'Lord of the Rings') in his directorial debut, and written by the Academy Award nominated William Nicholson ('Gladiator', 'Les Miserables'). Serkis has lately been directing his second film, 'Jungle Book', which is due out in 2018.
'Breathe' set to be released in US movie theatres on October 13th 2017.
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Tom Hollander, Hugh Bonneville, Dean-Charles Chapman, Stephen Mangan, Ed Speleers, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Camilla Rutherford