The Coelacanth, a dive into our origins

Overview

Gombessa Expedition 1 To dive for the Coelacanth is to go back in time. In 1938, when it was known only as a fossil, a Coelacanth was discovered in South Africa in a fisherman's net. This species bears witness to an evolutionary bifurcation 380 million years ago, and bears the marks of a great event: the day the fish left the ocean for the open air. Does it hold the secret to the transition to walking on land? In 2010, a marine biologist and outstanding diver, Laurent Ballesta, took the first photographs of the Coelacanth in its ecosystem. In April 2013, divers and researchers set down their equipment at the Sodwana base camp in South Africa, in the club founded by Peter Timm (who died in 2014). Six weeks of extreme diving at depths of over 120 meters, in an attempt to film the Coelacanth with a double-headed camera, collect its DNA and tag a subject with a satellite-linked beacon...

Details

Status

Released

Release date

November 2, 2013

Original language

French

Spoken languages

English, French, German

Countries

France

Production

ARTE,Les Films d'ici,CNRS Images,Andromède Océanologie,Les Films d'Ici

Cast

Thibault Rauby,Laurent Ballesta,Florian Holon,Mélanie Faye,Yanick Gentil,Cédric Gentil,Marc Herbin,Kerry Sink,Peter Timm,Gaël Clémentand 1 more

Director

Gil Kébaïli

Writer

Laurent Ballesta,Gil Kébaïli

Producer

Jacques Hinstin

Music

Stéphane Lopez

Budget

Not recorded

Revenue

Not recorded

Homepage

Official site

IMDb

View on IMDb