Here’s a controversial documentary that contains feats of daring as spectacular as the stunts in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One. It’s essentially an introduction to the niche, extreme sport of freediving (dives completed without the assistance of oxygen tanks, but closely watched by “safety divers”, who prove essential when blackouts occur). And watching The Deepest Breath is like being inducted into a cult whose members wish they were fish. It’s insanely absorbing and, be warned, deeply distressing.
The central figures are Alessia Zecchini, an ambitious and gorgeous Italian athlete, and Stephen Keenan, the genial and heroic Irish safety diver who, in 2017, helped prepare Zecchini to navigate a treacherous Red Sea abyss known as the ‘Blue Hole’. What’s caused heated debate is that, while any fool can see Zecchini and Keenan are headed for trouble, we only discover the extent at the end of the movie. Though, ethically, it feels like certain true events shouldn’t be used a plot twist.
That said, you can see why Irish writer-director Laura McGann made this call. Audiences flock to sports movies in which good-looking and/or immensely privileged icons crash and burn. McGann, by contrast, has always been fascinated by the unsung athletes and resilient, female pioneers (her last film, Revolutions, was about the Irish women clawing their way to roller derby success). In this niche, she has found a way to spotlight the kind of people she finds interesting. She may use sneaky methods, but it’s in a great cause.
The under-the-sea reconstructions, many of them shot by freedivers befriended by McGann, are stunningly beautiful, showing light falling on supple limbs, in eerily uncluttered space. As swimmers grab the dive line for their gruelling upward climb, the vibe is both mythic and urban (they could be Orpheus fleeing the underworld or dancers in a Michael Clark ballet). Which is what you’d expect from a project backed by the switched-on folk at A24.
Meanwhile, present-day interviews are illuminating. We discover that during Vertical Blue, a contest in the Bahamas described as “The Wimbledon of Freediving”, Zecchini was “too scared”. An expert who worked with Zecchini puts it bluntly, “She had a problem with the dark.” After training with Keenan, however, all that dread disappeared. As Zecchini says, “He inspired trust, straight away”. Which is moving precisely because the genuinely altruistic safety diver was (according to his father, Peter) full of self-doubt himself.
Thanks to Man from Atlantis, I spent most of my youth longing for webbed feet. I was never going to be able to resist this film. But, even if you’re allergic to all things oceany, it should appeal.
True, the soundtrack gets a little wifty-wafty (it’s Poignant, with a capital P). And it’s a shame Zecchini and her driven friends aren’t obsessed with preserving the planet (they’re seemingly too busy setting world records to worry about warming seas). Never mind. What comes across, over and over again, is the hard-won solidarity of this global community. When these water babies hug, you can feel the love.
