At the end of March, the international champion free diver Francisco Pipin Ferreras filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix over the film No Limit, which suggests he deliberately killed his wife in 2002 while attempting a record free dive. She drowned in the Dominican Republic after the device that was supposed to carry her back to the surface malfunctioned.

Last September, Netflix released the fictional French-language film that closely resembled the circumstances of Audrey Mestre's life and death. For a while, No Limit was the most popular non-English movie on Netflix. It tells the story of characters Roxane Aubrey and Pascal Gautier, who is depicted as abusive and jealous of Aubrey's success. In the climactic scene, the film implies that Gautier sabotaged her compressed air tank, leaving her without enough air to inflate the lift bag intended to send her safely to the surface.

In the book The Last Attempt: the true story of freediving champion Audrey Mestre and the mystery of her death, published in 2006, author Carlos Serra, Pipin's manager and business partner, alleges that her death was caused by a mismanaged attempt by Pipin to steal the limelight through a pre-planned rescue after her ascent cylinder failed. Others have also claimed he was involved.

No Limit is a good film; you can still view it on Netflix.

- John Bantin

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