Director: PV Lehtinen (FI)
Genre: Documentary
Finland, 2000 / 21 min (35 mm), b/w & sound

The Film
»Diving is like poetry, each movement flowing into the next«. The Diver is a hymn to diving and the aesthetics of movement. Helge Wasenius (b. 1927), the main character in the film, was the almost sovereign swim diving champion of Finland and the Nordic countries for two decades, representing Finland at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Parallel to his professional career, he pursued another career as a children’s favourite clown diver. His speciality was dangling, cold-bloodedly, head downwards, high on a diving platform, hanging by his feet. In the film he decides to perform the stunt one last time, before making his final plunge into the unknown, even though all the water has been drained from the pool. The film takes place at the Helsinki Swimming Stadium, scene of the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympics.

PV Lehthinen
PV Lehtinen (born in Helsinki) has been studying film at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. Besides directing and screenwriting, he has also worked as film editor.