Friends attempt to bring back two dead friends in deep, dark waters in Juan Reina’s DIVING INTO THE UNKNOWN

DIVING INTO THE UNKNOWN (Juan Reina, 2016)
Cinépolis Chelsea
260 West Twenty-Third St. at Eighth Ave.
Thursday, November 17, 5:30
212-691-5519
www.docnyc.net
divingintotheunknown.com

For his feature-length debut, writer-director Juan Reina was all set to make a documentary in Norway about a group of Finnish friends’ daring attempt to break the world record for longest cave dive. But the narrative quickly changed when two of the divers, Jari Huotarinen and Jari Uusimäki, suffered tragic accidents and died, their bodies trapped underwater. Unable to retrieve the bodies because of safety concerns, the authorities closed off the area to any further diving. But the rest of the Finnish team decides that they cannot leave their friends down there and come up with a plan to secretly dive in and bring them back home for proper burials. A kind of mix between a Werner Herzog adventure documentary, a procedural caper film, and a military rescue drama, Diving into the Unknown follows Sami Paakkarinen, Vesa “Vesku” Rantanen, Kai “Kaitsu” Känkänen, Patrik “Patte” Grönqvist, and others as they decide to risk their lives in the waters that killed their fellow divers. “I do everything I can not to die while diving,” Paakkarinen says early on, later adding, “You should never expect that a dive will go well . . . because then it never does.” Grönqvist notes, “It has to be fun. If it’s not fun, there’s no point in doing it.” But during the rescue attempt, he says, “From the outside this might seem foolishly risky. But life in general can be risky. You cannot prepare for everything that could go wrong. You just cannot practice facing a dead friend at one hundred and ten meters.” No matter how many dives they’ve been on together, each new one comes with its own obstacles and dangers; when the men say goodbye to their respective families, they know deep down that they might not return alive. And it’s not just the physical aspects of diving that place them in jeopardy; several discuss the emotional and psychological trauma that could impact their safety, especially when diving to recover two of their closest friends.

Diving into the Unknown is filled with lush photography by Jarkko M. Virtanen and Tuuka Kovasiipi, who capture the vast, snowy landscapes from the Plura lakeside to the Steinugleflåget dry caves, while Janne Suhonen mans the underwater camera, revealing the dark, mysterious waters where anything can happen. Seamlessly edited by Reina and Riitta Poikselkä and featuring a score by Norwegian singer-songwriter KAADA, the film is a gripping tale that delves deep below the surface; in many of the underwater scenes, it looks as if the divers are floating in the air. “I’ve never really been keen on diving myself, but what really interests me are things like how far ambition can drive people, how much people are willing to sacrifice in order to achieve their goals, and if there’s any clear common denominator amongst people willing to risk their lives to do something they love,” Reina, who was initially inspired to make a film about diving after being given the book Divers of the Dark by Suhonen and Antti Apunen, explains in his director’s statement. Diving into the Unknown exposes both the dedicated, faithful brotherhood of these divers as well as the dangerous challenges they take on every time they put on their wetsuits and strap on their equipment. Diving into the Unknown is making its U.S. premiere on November 17 at Cinépolis Chelsea as part of DOC NYC, the largest nonfiction film festival in the world, with Reina and producer Juho Harjula on hand to talk about the work.