Is This the Most Dangerous Sport in the World?
Like Free Solo in reverse, The Deepest Breath is a heart-stopping (and heartbreaking) documentary that immerses viewers in the perilous world of freediving, a sport in which daring men and women attempt to reach unfathomable depths of the sea on a single unassisted breath. Writer/director Laura McGann’s film (July 19 on Netflix, following its Sundance Film Festival premiere) is an illuminating primer on this most hazardous of pastimes, with a particular focus on two individuals who dedicated their lives to it: Italian athlete Alessia Zecchini and safety diver Stephen Keenan. Eliciting empathetic engagement through nail-biting tension, it’s a story of courage, trust, and tragedy, the last of which materializes in ways that are at once shattering and uplifting.
The Deepest Breath’s credit sequence is a montage of oceanic images—serpentine waves cresting and crashing into each other, crystalline water droplets spraying into the air—that have been shot, and slowed-down, so they look downright alien. That’s fitting, given that this real-life thriller is fixated on the deepest, darkest parts of the sea, where natural light dares not tread and extreme pressure threatens to crush human trespassers. These regions are not fit for travel—at least, not without an oxygen tank or a sturdy vessel—and that’s precisely what makes Alessia and her fellow freedivers’ feats so amazing and nerve-wracking.
Alessia knew from an early age that she was committed to this endeavor, and home movie footage of her as a young girl in the pool and the ocean illustrate her instinctive, imposing talent. When she topped the best mark of Italian national team member Homar Leuci as a teenager, Alessia made it clear to the field that she was the real deal. Nonetheless, a subsequent ruling that competitors had to be at least 18 years old slowed her rapid-fire ascent to the big leagues. So Alessia bided her time and trained for the future, all in the hope that she’d one day join the company of freediving’s elite, particularly its living legend Natalia Molchanova, who was the first woman to ever pass 100 meters on a dive.