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Every day, athletes of all ages take to their neighborhood fields and courts and rinks to participate in their favorite sports. For some, though, sports like baseball and tennis and soccer just aren’t extreme enough. And the Netflix documentary The Deepest Breath explores the stories of athletes who risk their lives to compete in freediving.
The Deepest Breath dives deep to tell the story of Alessia Zecchini, a young Italian woman who dreamed of breaking world records in freediving, a dangerous extreme sport in which competitors dive to the deepest depths of the sea in a single breath. Because of the lack of oxygen on their ascent, divers often black out, requiring the help of people like Irish safety diver Stephen Keenan, who became famous for his life-saving rescues. And after the two connected during Alessia’s world record attempt in the Bahamas, they began working together on her next big challenge.
Not only is this sport an extremely difficult one for competitors, but it’s also an extremely difficult one to watch. Like another recent extreme sport documentary, Oscar winner Free Solo, this film is not for the faint of heart. The film’s first scene, which follows Alessia on an excruciatingly long dive into the sea and back, will make your own chest hurt just watching her move through the water, waiting for her to reach the surface, imagining the crushing pressure of the water as oxygen levels begin to run low. The film holds nothing back, either, showing the urgent rescue attempts on divers after they black out before reaching the surface. These scenes can be incredibly unsettling to watch—to the point that it might make you dread each new dive attempt.
In between dives, the story follows these two different people from the freediving world—this relentlessly determined (and sometimes almost reckless) diver, who refused to back down from her dream, and this lovable adventurer, who was known for his dedication and heroism. Viewers get to know them through their peers, through their fathers, through shaky home videos. And as their stories play out—and eventually connect—it adds to the tension and suspense and emotion of this nerve-racking documentary.
Watching films like The Deepest Breath should be considered an extreme sport. It may not be as life-threatening as competing in a sport like freediving, but it’s definitely the kind of heart-pounding, gasping-for-air kind of experience that will appeal to more daring viewers.
You can dive into this documentary when The Deepest Breath debuts on Netflix on July 19, 2023.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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