Louise Osmond Jerry Rothwellt
Deep Water

LA RECENSIONE

1968. The challenge is launched to attempt the solo circumnavigation of the world, without ever making a stopover, to break the world record. Donald Crowhurst, an English family man and inexperienced skipper, decides to plunge into this endeavor, as grand as it is risky.

From the moment he makes the decision, his life experiences an incredible acceleration; he must think of every minute detail to best prepare for his crossing and try to anticipate any obstacle he might encounter along the route, knowing that once he sets off, he will be alone to face it. Perhaps due to the excitement of the preparations, or perhaps because every step Donald takes, he finds himself surrounded by people who encourage and support him, it seems he does not take the necessary time to listen to himself, to face the doubts that grip him in the few moments he finds himself alone; it is almost a certainty for him, that there is something in this affair that doesn't add up, yet the enthusiasm of those around him influences him to such an extent that he manages to set aside his own thoughts, until the moment of departure.

Donald takes with him a 16 mm camera and a diary to document every detail as evidence of the crossing. It will be the second diary that Donald compiles in secret that serves as the real testimony, day after day, to that tragic endeavor, the words that reveal the truth and the madness of the last months spent on the trimaran, immersed in the Ocean, in total solitude; a parallel trace of the actual journey that Donald undertakes, the journey within himself, in the deep tunnels that run through every man's soul, crushed between fears and reality. It is his connection with himself that breaks and causes him to collapse, to get lost in the labyrinthine thoughts that his brain, in relentless activity, never ceases to create. Donald, before departure, did not have the courage to consider the latent conviction that things were not entirely in order; he was afraid of not setting off, he was afraid once he set sail, of truly facing the circumnavigation, and he was afraid of returning, to his everyday life, without having completed that incredible crossing.

It is from this fear, a faithful companion of those solitary months, that madness arises, and this documentary-film describes it in depth, also with the help of the materials found on the boat, and the mere passing of the film is enough to gradually draw the viewer into the sailor's soul.