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In the modern age, streaming giant Netflix has become the mecca of documentaries. It seems that Netflix drops a new documentary every few days, and nearly all of them are of extremely high quality. And, on July 19, 2023, the platform added to its long list of outstanding documentary films with The Deepest Breath, perhaps the most anxiety-inducing documentary they’ve ever released. In fact, the first time I watched this documentary, I actually found myself sweating and holding my breath for long periods of time. The Deepest Breath is not for the faint of heart.
This film follows the true life stories of Alessia Zecchini and Stephen Keenan. Zecchini is an Italian freediver who set numerous world and Italian records in the sport. The very first scene of The Deepest Breath shows Zecchini attempting a world record-breaking dive and going unconscious just a few meters from the surface, forcing safety divers to pull her out of the water and provide her with oxygen. Trigger warning: this first scene (as well as many other scenes in the film) is rather disturbing. If you aren’t into the idea of watching someone’s brain shut down from lack of oxygen, then The Deepest Breath is probably not the ideal content for you.
Stephen Keenan is an adventurous young man from Ireland who travels the world for years before finding his home in the freediving community in Egypt. Keenan builds a reputation as one of the best safety divers in the sport and even opens up his own freediving shop in Dahab, Egypt. Eventually, Stephen Keenan and Alessia Zecchini cross paths and end up forming a romantic relationship. However, their relationship is put to the ultimate test due to the dangerous nature of their sport.
The Deepest Breath is thrilling, heartbreaking, fascinating, and definitely worth a watch (if you can handle seeing people pass out underwater).
The Deepest Breath Synopsis
As previously mentioned, the first scene shows world-class freediver Alessia Zecchini attempting a record-breaking dive at Vertical Blue, a competition sometimes referred to as the “Wimbledon of Freediving” held at Dean’s Blue Hole (a 202-meter-deep sinkhole) in the Bahamas. Before returning to the surface, however, Zecchini blacks out and must be towed to the surface by a pair of rescue divers.
Once at the surface, Zecchini’s eyes roll to the back of her head, and she appears completely unresponsive. The four-or-so-minute scene is difficult to watch and will make your blood pressure shoot up. After this scene, the film cuts to a somber interview with Alessia’s father, Enzo Zecchini, reading his daughter’s essays from primary school and speaking about the price of greatness. The implication here is that the footage you’ve just watched, the attempted dive at Vertical Blue, showed Alessia Zecchini’s death.
As the documentary continues, Stephen Keenan is introduced. Stephen’s father, Peter Keenan, speaks on Stephen’s childhood and his adventures as a young man traveling around the world. Stephen wandered the Earth for years, visiting exotic lands and engaging in thrill-seeking activities. Eventually, Stephen developed a love for the sport of freediving, which would lead him to meet the love of his life.
Alessia’s father speaks on her journey in the sport of freediving, how she had always had a love of the ocean and how she was inspired by legendary Russian freediver Natalia Molchanova. At first, Zecchini was outcompeted by other freedivers her age. However, after watching an interview with Molchanova in which she described her mind-and-body-control technique (which she referred to as “attention deconcentration”), Zecchini changed her approach to freediving and improved significantly beyond her peers.
At a certain point, it’s revealed that Natalia Molchanova died during a freediving accident. Experts have suggested that she may have been swept away by an underwater current, and her body has never been found. Zecchini, though, was undeterred by this and even claimed in an interview that she never considered that death could be a possible consequence of her passion.
The Tragic End
Spoiler alert: if you haven’t yet watched The Deepest Breath, you’ll definitely want to skip this section. The film features some incredible plot twists that will be revealed in the following sections.
In the most joyous scene of the film, Zecchini competes at the Vertical Blue competition with Stephen Keenan as her safety diver against Hanako Hirose. The two divers trade world record-breaking dives until Zecchini edges Hirose out and successfully completes the deepest female monofin dive of the competition, making her the new world record-holder.
However, now at the top of the sport, Zecchini feels as if she must attempt the one feat she’s yet to conquer, freediving the Blue Hole, a massive underwater arch in Dahab, Egypt, that’s considered one of the most dangerous diving sites on the planet. The only woman to ever successfully freedive the Blue Hole was Natalia Molchanova, Zecchini’s idol.
In perhaps the most nail-biting scene in the entire film (and there are a lot of them), Zecchini attempts to swim under the arch and meet Stephen Keenan on the other side, who was meant to lead her back to the surface. However, Keenan errs and arrives at their meeting point too late, causing Zecchini to make a split decision to head for the surface alone.
However, Keenan eventually catches up to Zecchini underwater and leads her to the surface. In the critical moment, Keenan positioned Zecchini in such a way that she would reach the surface face-up and survive. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do the same for himself. Keenan returned to the surface with his face in the water, causing him to suffocate and die. He gave his life up to rescue his beloved in an unbelievable act of courage and selflessness.
Finally, the documentary cuts to an interview with Alessia Zecchini (who the audience presumed to be dead), speaking on the accident that led to Stephen’s death. Alessia Zecchini, Enzo Zecchini, Peter Keenan, and many other members of the freediving community speak on how Stephen made a positive impact on their lives and the nobility of making the ultimate sacrifice.
The Deepest Breath Review
In my opinion, The Deepest Breath lived up to the high bar that Netflix has set for its documentaries and possibly even surpassed it. First of all, the footage was visually stunning. Watching human beings descend into the blue abyss of the ocean was truly incredible, and the way that the film would go silent during these descents gave the audience an idea of what it would be like to dive to such depths. Laura McGann did a phenomenal job paying homage to the sport of freediving as well as to the love that Alessia and Stephen shared.
For many people, the sport of freediving is completely foreign and unthinkable. But this film also did an excellent job of explaining the rules and procedures of freediving while helping the audience get inside the minds of freedivers. Alessia’s motivations for becoming the greatest female freediver ever and her love of the ocean are a center point of this film, which I thought was very important.
Overall, even though the subject of this film is rather niche, the love story of Alessia and Stephen and Stephen’s willingness to give up his life for the person he loved will pull at the heartstrings of any viewer. If you can stomach watching people pass out over and over, you should definitely give The Deepest Breath a watch.
