New Netflix doco The Deepest Breath is the ‘best ever seen’

A Netflix documentary has left viewers both terrified and fascinated, saying it’s “the best documentary I’ve seen in my life”.

Harrowing scenes from the Netflix documentary The Deepest Breath. Picture: Netflix

Netflix’s new documentary about freediving has left viewers disturbed and traumatised.

The film, The Deepest Breath which was released in July this year, allows viewers the opportunity to explore the world of swimmers who compete against one another in deep diving.

The aim is to see who can dive the furthest in the deep depths of the ocean while holding a single breath of air.

Scenes from the documentary show the divers courting death as they plunge as deep as a 70 story skyscraper while holding their breath.

One of the most harrowing scenes comes from diver Alessia Zecchini who attempts to break the world record of freediving for four minutes, but she passes out just as she returns to the surface.

This scene is just one of many that has left viewers emotional and saying that the film is “heartbreaking” as well as terrifying.

“The second hand anxiety from watching The Deepest Breath on Netflix is incredible,” one person wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“I’ve just started watching ‘The Deepest Breath’ on Netflix, which I’m sure you’ll agree, for someone like me that is terrified of extremely deep water, is a top notch idea,” another wrote.

One user commented that they were prepared to “snot bubble cry” after their anxiety high throughout the entire documentary as “they keep talking about people in the past tense”.

“You just know it ends in tragedy,” they wrote.

Only about three minutes into The Deepest Breath on Netflix and I am *stressed.*

— Lucy Burdge (@LucilleBurdge) August 3, 2023

Watched The Deepest Breath on Netflix and I honestly recommend it. Free diving is an extraordinarily insane sport because, why would one do that??? 😭

— fono. (@MfonnU) September 21, 2023

Despite many admitting to how negatively affected by the documentary they were, it had been highly praised as an “incredible documentary”.

“The Deepest Breath on Netflix is the best documentary I’ve ever seen in my life 10/10. I can’t stress how good this was enough. Maybe the most captivating story ever told,” one person commented.

“The Deepest Breath [on] Netflix is so truly beautiful and heart breaking,” another wrote.

The Deepest Breath on #netflix is maybe the most moving documentary on love I have ever seen. I am still processing it and I think I’m going to rewatch it again here in a few after I’ve just finished it. Wow is an understatement watching this. #TheDeepestBreath#documentary

— Joanie (@joanieknits) July 19, 2023

Anyone watch The Deepest Breath on Netflix yet? I'm man enough to say I cried like a baby at the end. Even shed another tear when I retold the story to my wife. pic.twitter.com/9u0fLQJZ6c

— Shaun Ferguson 🇿🇦🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@sferguk) July 22, 2023

The documentary follows the story of divers Stephen and Alessia Keenan who were determined to break records and dive into new depths.

Scenes that had hit viewers hard the most were the footage of the divers blacking out and being yanked out by safety divers, and these scenes are shown throughout the film.

Stephen (left) and Alessia Keenan (right). Picture: Netflix

The film also looked at the story of 52-year-old champion diver Natalia Molchanova whose recreational dive in Ibiza in 2015 has left her to be presumed dead.

According to reports, it’s assumed that she had been caught in underwater currents while diving at a depth of 114 feet.

The Deepest Breath is available to stream on Netflix.