Synopsis

Breathing is something we can’t escape and certainly don’t want to. Breathing is elementary: the first and last breath determines our beginning and our end. In this fascinating film, Goran Čolak is filmed under water for an unbelievable twenty-two-and-half minutes. The cameras are focused on the strange scenery. The icy silence is only interrupted by the voices of his coach and a small child. As he reappears, Goran is world champion. The successful free diver has made his ability to hold his breath a profession, even though he suffers from chronic periods of apnoea during his sleep. For more than five years, the Croatian filmmaker Bojana Burnać has been following this extraordinary person in every aspect: into the breath taking depths of the ocean, but also into the breathing tent in his bedroom. With her documentary, she creates a sensitive insight into the life of a success-driven man who pushes his body to every possible limit. To stay at the top of what he does, Goran risks exceeding his barriers and being punished by nature in an irreparable way. He lives and trains in a complex mix of excitement, fear, insecurity and power, accompanied by an impenetrable silence.