The world of freediving is, in equal part, terrifying, haunting, balletic and magnificent, but the possibility of death always accompanies the fame and glory that comes with breaking new deep diving records. Laura McGann’s immersive and wonderfully shot The Deepest Breath is an exhilarating love story that has enough twists-and-turns to make it a totally absorbing experience.
Freedivers are extreme and highly-driven athletes who live life on the edge, but McGann’s film charts two very different paths within the freedive world. One strand follows bold and ambitious Italian Alessia Zecchini as she prepares for new dives (when asked about the prospect of death she laughs and talks about fate), while the other journey follows the Irish globe-trotting adventurer Stephen Keenan who, after breaking Irish records with his own diving, becomes a safety diver.
In early scenes we see Alessia in the Bahamas as she prepares for a record-breaking dive. We are presented glorious underwater photography until we see her pulled to the surface, eyes rolling into the back into her head and receiving emergency CPR.
Keenan’s story is told through video footage of his journeys around the world and interviews with friends and family, his path eventually taking him to the Egyptian diving Mecca of Dahab where divers meet to brave the notorious and notoriously deadly Blue Hole.
Alessia wants to emulate the record-breaking celebrity of Russian freediver Natalia Molchanova while Keenan is passionate and proud about the skills he and his team possess in keeping the freedivers safe. As is slowly revealed against a backdrop of beaches, gleaming sunny skies and mesmeric watery depths, this unlikely couple start to fall in love. The complexities and dangers of the sport are also revealed along the way, with ominous repeated warnings that despite being the most regulated of contests mistakes can lead to tragedy.
Astute editing by Julian Hart, a sweeping score from Nainita Desai and crisp and beautiful cinematography by Tim Cragg (together with a team of underwater photographers) keep the film moving at an easy pace, but also serve to hint at darkness to come for the two central characters. During one competition Alessia has blackouts on three straight days (which is considered quite normal), while Stephen relishes the intimacy and comradeship he finds with this young woman who has glory and records within her reach.
Their love story is charming but their vocation is a dangerous one, and audiences should be braced for sad moments ahead. Like Free Solo (and other such docs about high risk pursuits) there is a niggling sense that the arc of the story is the main driver for the filmmakers, but there is no getting away from the sheer elegance and beauty of the underwater footage and drama as you revel in the astonishing physical skills of the divers as they head towards the stunning but treacherous watery depths.
US, 2023, 108mins
Dir: Laura McGann
Production: Netflix, A24
Producers: John Battsek, Sarah Thomson, Jamie D’Alton, Anne McLoughlin
Cinematography: Tim Cragg
Editor: Julian Hart
Music: Nainita Desai
With: Alessia Zecchini, Stephen Keenan, Leigh Baker, Mahmoud Barracuda, Ilaria Bonin, Kristif Coenen, Lily Crespy, Hanako Hirose, Peter Keenan
