Free diving at the heart of the Netflix documentary “Deepest”

DISPATCH — In the first minutes of “At the Deepest”, an amphibious drone follows diver Alessia Zecchini as she descends a hundred meters into the dark depths of the ocean, then its rise. All in the space of a single breath.

The three-and-a-half minute sequence, which is thrilling and claustrophobic, is as difficult to watch as it is hypnotic.

As Alessia Zecchini climbs back up, her body begins to convulse. Rescue divers must bring her to the surface and resuscitate her.

The images may be shocking, but losing consciousness from a lack of oxygen is common among free divers, athletes in an extreme sport that involves diving as deep as possible without any respiratory assistance.

“You can watch all the videos in the world and still not be ready to see a human being simply disappear, like that”, confides Laura McGann, the director of the documentary released Wednesday on the platform Netflix around the world. “It's frightening to see.”

In her film, composed of archival images, interviews and some reconstructions, Laura McGann attempts to understand what pushes these men and women to risk their lives again and again and to push the limits of human endurance to the search for new records.

“Seeing a human being behave like a seal or a dolphin in the water, without an oxygen bottle, was as if I had learned that there was a group of people, some part in the world, who could fly”, she told AFP.

The documentary focuses on the relationship between diver Alessia Zecchini and Stephen Keenan, a young Irishman who becomes one of the sport's safety specialists.

Free divers, if they do not actively seek death, do not seem to fear it. At the opening of “At the deepest”, Alessia Zecchini happily explains that she doesn't even think about it.

But the viewer quickly understands that a tragedy has happened.

Neither the Diver nor Stephen Keenan give any interviews for the film, leaving the question of their fate unresolved for almost the entire feature—except with a quick internet search.

This narration was criticized against the director during the first returns during the Sundance film festival in January.

But Laura McGann had decided “very early on” that her documentary would stay “in the present moment” with her characters throughout their odyssey.

Death “would always be found towards the end of the film”.

“Deep Down” is the latest in a series of recent documentaries that explore dangerous obsessions through the lens of a love story.

Nominated for the Oscars last year, “Fire of Love” told the story of the risky daily life of the couple of French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft.

And in 2019, “Free Solo” followed climber Alex Honnold as he climbed El Capitan without a belay system, and showed his terrified girlfriend.

For Laura McGann, the relationship between Zecchini and Keenan was one of “yin and yang”, as if they were “each the other's missing piece”, even before they met as as celebrities from the small world of freediving.

This sport, as much cerebral as physical, requires a very particular type of personality, which not only remains calm, but appreciates being at a depth of 100 m, where one can no longer be rescued.

“What the free diver feels is almost the opposite of what those watching the documentary feel,” explained Laura McGann.

While spectators may find themselves catching their breath just by watching, divers evoke “a serene, calm, peaceful silence” as they calm their minds and reduce their heart rate to “that of a Tibetan monk”.

“It's almost a meditative state,” describes Laura McGann.

But, you have to keep a little subconscious focused on what you're doing, enough to remember that you have to go back up.”

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