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Synopsis

Air is our first source of nourishment and breathing is the act that enables it. Too often we give this for granted. Mike Maric, world free diving champion and researcher, teaches people how to breathe. This is the story of how he got started. In 2005 Mike, at the peak of his athletic career, lost his best friend in an accident at sea. The untimely death of Philip, his most trusted assistant during his free-diving competitions, leads Mike into a deep crisis that prompts him to give up competitive free-diving. He travels between Hawaii and the Bahamas and back to Croatia, his native country, in search of a light, pursuing a contact with nature embodied by his guide animal, the dolphin, a symbol of the life cycle of death and rebirth. From his encounter with these wonderful mammals, Mike finds a new and deeper balance. Within a few years Mike developed a breath training method and became a coach to Olympic athletes, contributing to many of their international successes with workouts performed in Y-40, the world’s deepest thermal water pool. The trauma caused by a bereavement was an opportunity to face a path of rebirth and apnea the way to learn more about himself. Best Short Documentary, Best Producer, Best Cinematography, Best Director – Southeast Academy Film Festival 2024. Best Editing – Caorle Independent Film Festival Official 2023. Official Selection 2023: Ocean Film Festival World Tour, Canadian Sport Film Festival.