by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer
Few subjects manage to capture my fascination quite like extreme sports.
Taking a deep dive into what drives someone to push themselves to the limit, when the consequences of a mistake can be deadly, provides instant investment.
That sensation is not new. Just a few years ago, Free Solo’s chronicling of a free solo climber’s quest for history captivated audiences; now, a new Netflix/A24 project seeks shine some light on those who dive the deepest depths looking to push their bodies to the limit.
The Deepest Breath puts into focus champion freediver Alessia Zecchini and safety diver Stephen Keenan, and explores the paths they respectively took to arrive at the pinnacle of the freediving world, and how they bonded over the love of a sport so fraught with peril.
As someone whose personal skills lie neither in being a particularly good swimmer nor as someone whose lung capacity is one of their greatest strengths, a sport where the objective is to — in one breath — swim as deep as possible before coming back to the surface is perhaps the one I am uniquely unqualified to excel at. But it sure makes for a compelling subject matter.
Like the divers shown throughout the film, the documentary moves at a deliberate pace, and with a purpose. We first meet Zecchini, a child prodigy of the freediving world, and watch as the sport gets its hooks into her at an early age. She’s immensely driven and stubborn, committed to overcoming the obstacles placed in front of her in a quest to become the most decorated freediver of all time. Keenan, by comparison, is a free spirit, who catches the freediving bug on a wide-ranging trip through Africa. After competing a little himself, he finds he’s more drawn to the safety diver role, becoming the world’s preeminent safety professional, and sharing his love of the sport through the establishment of a school for free diving where he fell in love with the sport. Through both in-person and archival interviews from family, friends, and the biggest figures in the world of freediving, you get a complete picture of both subjects and the sporting world that they made their livelihoods in. Despite the pair’s divergent personalities, it’s easy to see how they would almost instantly form a connection, given their passion for what they do. You feel the bond of diver and safety expert, coach and trainee, and people who just care deeply for one another.
It’s a breathtaking piece of filmmaking from writer/director Laura McGann — and in more ways than one.
The photography, helmed by cinematographer Tim Cragg, is stunning. Whether it’s capturing the stunning locales at which these dives largely take place, or the dark underwater depths the divers sink to, it’s a feast for the eyes. Even the standard interviews are well shot. Visually and narratively, McGann knows how and when to stitch together her interviews and archival footage, be it from competitions, home videos, or other interviews collected.
In addition to the use of stunning visuals, the way the documentary is structured somehow manages to make you hold your breath right alongside those on the dive. Over and over again, it’s impressed upon the viewer how dangerous freediving is — even for the most accomplished of divers. Everything, from the music to the tone of the interviews, slowly makes it feel like your lungs are being compressed over the course of the runtime — much like you’re going for an extended dive yourself. There’s a tension that builds in your chest just waiting to be released, a sense of foreboding that’s always there in the back of your mind.
As it was plodding along, I found myself enjoying the insight I was getting into a sport I had no previous context for, and accepting the deliberate pacing and the intercutting between the lives of these two people I knew would come together in the end. As it built toward its looming conclusion, the sense of unease gradually grew until the emotional sledgehammer is finally dropped. It hits hard. Truth be told, I’m still mulling it over.
The ending takes a film I enjoyed for its explorations of a sport I had previously been in the dark about, and the relationship at its center, from an experience I really liked to something a little more.
Rating: Loved it
The Deepest Breath is currently available to stream on Netflix
You can read more from Jake Bourgeois, and follow him on Twitter and Letterboxd