Netflix viewers are seriously praising a new heart-wrenching documentary about freediving called The Deepest Breath.
The new show - directed by Laura McGann - landed on the streaming service on Wednesday (July 19) and has already caused quite a splash on social media.
Freediving is an extreme and dangerous sport where competitors try to dive to unimaginable depths and hold their breath underwater until resurfacing without using any scuba gear.
This article contains spoilers about the documentary, so you might want to stop here if you are thinking about watching it fresh.
Watch The Deepest Breath trailer below:The Deepest Breath tells the story of a freediving couple, Alessia Zecchini and Stephen Keenan, who team up to break world records in the sport.
Zecchini, from Italy, holds records in the sport, and in March set a new world record for free diving with two fins in constant buoyancy by plunging to a depth of 109 meters in the waters of Moalboal, Philippines. Meanwhile, Keenan, from Iceland, has acted as a safety diver and even opened up a freediving school.
The pair train together as Zecchini attempts to take on the Blue Hole in Dahab, Egypt, where she must dive 184 feet below the Red Sea and glide through an 85-foot-long tunnel to the safety rope on the other side.
Zecchini was supposed to be met by Keenan in the tunnel, but everything went wrong when she blacked out, so the safety expert appeared at the last moment and pushed her to the surface. He then also blacked out and tragically died.
The devastating documentary left many people stunned, taking to social media to applaud everyone involved for their hard work and insight into the rare sport.
One person wrote: "The Deepest Breath on Netflix is the best documentary I’ve ever seen in my life. 10.0/10. I can’t stress how good this was enough. Maybe the most captivating story ever told."
Another said: "The Deepest Breath on Netflix is remarkable, go watch it. The best documentary I have ever seen about some remarkable humans pushing the boundaries of free diving, and life..."
Someone else commented: "Another emotional, tragic, heartbreaking documentary. Real footage got me holding my breath too. Beautifully made, The Deepest Breath is simply one of the best."
And a fourth shared: "If you want to know when I last cried, it was a few minutes ago at the end of The Deepest Breath. What a film, one of the great documentaries."
Filmmaker Laura McGann spoke with Netflix's Tudum about the film and said there was "something otherworldly" about witnessing the sport.
"I could feel that there was just an at-oneness that these people had, that they were so relaxed and they were just meant to be there. It was really gentle - but also powerful and hard to believe," she explained.
McGann also shared some details about Zecchini's dive into the world-famous Blue Hole - which is a major part of the documentary - and said: "What some of the athletes there that day said was that it wasn’t just one thing that went wrong - there were 50.
"There were so many little details that were shifted slightly, that resulted in this outcome. You don’t walk through life knowing what’s going to happen in six weeks' time or in seven years' time. You walk through life and you do not know what’s around the next corner," she continued. "And neither did Stephen or Alessia. And I just wanted to bring the audience on that journey."
The Deepest Breath is now available to watch on Netflix.
