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Much like the 2018 documentary Free Solo, The Deepest Breath chronicles a very dangerous extreme sport. Whilst Free Solo captures one man’s desire to free solo (climb without ropes), The Deepest Breath is diving without oxygen tanks. Both display the desire to push human bodies to the limit of what is physically possible, risking their lives to be the first to do something, first to be a record, to be the best diver, etc.

Freediving is taxing on the body, if you run out of oxygen on the way up, you can suffer a black out (several are depicted in the documentary), you can become susceptible to conditions that can kill you if you push yourself too hard, it is noted throughout the documentary about a handful of athletes who were killed doing what they loved. The Deepest Breath follows two free divers, one of whom competes for world records, as they push their bodies to the limit of what humans are capable of withstanding. Even though The Deepest Breath doesn’t go deep into any of its ideas, and it’s more interested in the “reveal” at the end of the documentary than it is about anything else, it provides an interesting insight into a sport that, assumingly, few of us have ever attempted. 

The two subjects of The Deepest Breath are Alessia Zecchini and Stephen Keenan. Alessia, originally from Italy, is shown as taking interest in competitive swimming from a young age, being displayed as someone who was constantly chasing the best times, even if it wasn’t free diving itself. After discovering free diving, she is shown to be always after the world record with a desire to dive deeper and deeper each time. Stephen is originally from Ireland and is struck with grief after the early death of his mother from cancer. This inspires him to live for each moment and never take a second for granted. He begins free diving, but after an incident in which he blacks out coming to the surface (an occurrence that can happen if the diver runs out of oxygen on the way up), he devotes his time to being a safety diver. They’re the people who ensure the divers are safe while they’re coming up to the surface and help get them out if they black out. Stephen makes a reputation for himself as a top safety diver, one who was willing to risk his own life in order to save others, his most notable attempt was saving the son of Natalia Molchanova (one of the most famous free divers in the world who sadly died after disappearing in 2015 during a dive) during a competition after he did not emerge. It is through this act that Stephen’s selfless nature can be seen, someone who was passionate about what he did, a safety diver who went out of his way to protect others.

Out of the two people, there was definitely a lot more insight into Stephen as a person. Why he did what he did, what motivated him, what moved him. He was powered by grief, and then powered by a desire to ensure the safety of other divers. He ran a school in Dahab, Egypt for diving and it was clear that he felt this was his life’s calling. On the other hand, the audience knows less about Alessia as a person, even though we find out her history with the sport and how she was noted as incredibly talented for her age. Once she became old enough to compete, it is clear that she never stopped. She is seen throughout the documentary as fiercely competitive and at one competition, is even noted to have annoyed other people competing with her attitude after pushing herself too far in the competition. However, her competitive nature and desire to be the best is never delved into or explored at all. It’s never said what truly drives her to be the best, to dive deeper than everyone before her, or what nurtures her competitive spirit. Alessia is still an interesting enough character based on what is presented to the audience, but it would have been nice to get to know Alessia a little bit more than what we saw.

After meeting at a free dive competition, Alessia and Stephen begin a romantic relationship. The romance, if anything, was very sweet. The audience doesn’t really see a lot of it, partially due to tragedy, but partially due to a lot of the documentary focusing on them as individuals first and as a couple second. It was mostly built up to them meeting and dating, with them being together only accounting for maybe the last 30-40 minutes of the documentary. A short while into their relationship, Alessia and Stephen make the decision to do a free dive in a location that is infamous for causing a large number of deaths in the free diving community. In a dive spot named The Blue Hole (in Dahab, Egypt, where Stephen lived), there was an arch which Alessia wanted to free dive through. Only achieved by Natalia, it makes sense that competitive Alessia, who is seen throughout the documentary as constantly pushing herself and wanting to break records, wanted to do such a dangerous dive..

During the dive, through a series of unfortunate mistakes, tragedy strikes and only one of them makes it out alive. The fatal flaw of this documentary is the way in which it is framed, which is around this one singular event, treating it as a massive reveal, like the end of a thriller. The entire goal of the documentary and the way it is framed is to emotionally manipulate the audience. They know from the very beginning that both of them do not live to see the end of the film, whether through picking up on the fact all the interviews are with everyone but Stephen and Alessia, or through pure ‘vibes’. That doesn’t make the documentary bad, however the “reveal” never felt like a natural part of the story, but rather one that the entire documentary was built around, causing it to feel slightly artificial. Having insight from the survivor about what happened, about what the other was like as a person would have allowed them to be a proper part of the narrative rather than being treated like a secret for most of the documentary.

Aside from that, the documentary is gorgeously shot. Using a combination of archival footage, footage from friends and family, and re-enactments all culminate in creating a hauntingly eerie, yet beautiful portrait of the ocean. Watching the free divers race up and down the line is mesmerizing and you feel elation when one of them breaks the record they were chasing. As someone who is not a fan of re-enactment footage, the re-enactments were seamless. With the exception of one clear re-enactment (during one of Alessia’s competitions involving her father) and some cheesy on-screen graphics of Alessia and Stephen communicating via text early in their relationship, anything else was non-noticeable. The use of a large collection of interviews from one of the pair proved to be a great idea. Director McGann noted that she had found the collection of interviews and listened to them, choosing to let one of the pair tell their own story, even if they were not around to tell it themself. 

The Deepest Breath is not perfect, it is fairly emotionally manipulative, framing the entire documentary around one central tragedy, treating the outcome of the tragic event as a “reveal” to the audience, stringing them along as they knew that one of them was not surviving what happened. However, in between all of that was a beautiful documentary about humans pushing themselves to the limit, about a man who felt uncertain about where his purpose in life was and his journey to finding it, and about living each day to its fullest, because you never know what could happen. Showcasing the beauty and horror of the ocean, sometimes within five minutes of each other, if you can get past the emotionally manipulative storytelling, the story at its heart contains a sweet romance that unfortunately ended in tragedy. 

Grade: B-

Oscar Prospects:
Likely: None
Should be Considered: Best Documentary Feature

Where to Watch: Netflix