16/11/2016 - Juan Reina's suspenseful documentary follows a team of divers as they try to retrieve the bodies of their drowned comrades from an underwater cave

Even if technology enables us to explore virtually every place on Earth via remote devices, it is the excitement of going where no one has been before and the feeling of true adventure that lead divers to explore underwater caves as part of life-threatening challenges. Diving into the Unknown [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Finnish director Juan Reina, which has just screened in the Doc@POFF section of the Black Nights International Film Festival in Tallinn, opens with a voice-over asking the question: “Is diving into a cave worth dying for?”

The documentary focuses on a group of five Finnish professional divers who decided to go diving in the Plurdalen cave in Northern Norway, a 2 km-long system with two different access points: one through a lake and the other through the Steinugleflåget dry cave, accessible only by snowmobile. During that dive, in February 2014, two men drowned 130 m down in the system, trapped at its deepest point. Unable to haul them up without putting themselves in mortal danger, the other members of the team abandoned the bodies in the cave, under the ice. Expert Norwegian and British recovery missions failed to retrieve them, and the local authorities outlawed diving in the cave system. Diving into the Unknown then depicts the secret recovery operation carried out by the three surviving members of the team, their friends, and the film crew that had originally been with them to film their attempt at the world record for the longest cave dive. 

The film combines talking-heads sections, where the divers recall the traumatic event, and its consequent memories and nightmares, alongside footage from the fatal incident filmed on cameras both above and under the water. Mixing suspense and horror, this extremely emotional and breath-taking trip into the abyss will thrill and touch viewers, even though they know how the story ends. Following the intrepid divers as they traverse the narrow, dark passages of the cave, where it is often impossible to see clearly, the POV underwater footage makes for a sensational experience.

The film’s greatest accomplishment is that it goes beyond the spectacular adventure and the tragic history, exploring the traumatic acts as the subjects re-perform and work through their own experiences in an attempt to recover the bodies, but also to move on with their lives. 

Diving into the Unknown was produced by Monami Agency, and Films Transit owns the international rights. 

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