As well as providing the subject for Luc Besson’s The Big Blue, Jacques Mayol did more than anyone to establish the sport of free diving to enormous depths without an oxygen supply. Using breathing techniques derived from yoga, he went to 50, 60, and even 100 meters—depths no one had considered to be within the bounds of human possibility. Mayol was a sportsman, a mystic, a vagabond, but above all, a man who believed in testing the limits of experience. This visually stunning tribute shows a man’s quest to be at one with the vastness of the ocean and to have no fear of the abyss within, where lurks serenity, freedom and finally, death.

In Venice between the gondolas, canals and palaces, tourists pour in as residents head out. Local population has fallen to fewer than 50,000 inhabitants, less than the daily tourist visits. However, next to the historical centre, there’s a hidden and silent lagoon surrounded by small invisible villages. A parallel world where residents resist, living a unique life, just in front of Venice. It’s here that young guys bump into little boats running at full speed with their bows rising up into the sky. They call them “Barchini”—small, colourful, fast with souped-up engines, driven by Venetian teenagers as if these motorboats were motorbikes. They take care of the boat’s aesthetic and accessories, they make them fancy through Hi-Fi, coloured LEDs, and light decorations, they work hard to pimp the engine or the stereo system. The cooler and more equipped with options the boat is, the cooler is the guy. And at the end of the day, after the usual party on a deserted island, here they are, challenging each other in dangerous illegal races to win girls’ hearts. Without lights to avoid the police, pointing their bows and wildly heading towards the Serenissima. Daniele, Luca, Alberto—our main characters—will drive us into their summer made by dreams and nightmares of a generation running at full speed.