Netflix recently released the French-language film No Limit. The fictionalized movie is based on the true story of Francisco “Pipin” Ferreras and his wife, Audrey Mestre. Due to the film’s events, however, the Netflix streaming service is now being sued for allegedly misleading viewers.
Francisco “Pipin” Ferreras and Audrey Mestre were known as a celebrity couple in the free diving world. Free diving is known as an extreme sport for divers that tend to go down hundreds of feet without any source of oxygen. And, in 2002, Mestre drowned while diving in the Dominican Republic. The device that was intended to carry her back to the surface malfunctioned and led to her death.
No Limit retells a fictionalized version of these events. This includes newly-named characters “Pascal Gautier” and “Roxane Aubrey” which are each based on Ferreras and Mestre. Though for the film, Gautier is jealous of Aubrey and acts abusively towards her, and during the film’s climax it even implies that he sabotaged her compressed air tank. As such, he’s believed to be the reason that she didn’t have enough air to reach the surface.
Now, as shared by Variety, Ferreras has sued Netflix as a result of this “retelling.” He claims that the film makes him look like a murderer – especially given that the film shows the Gautier character choking Aubrey during sex and even a confrontation before the final dive.
“I don’t know how people can do something like that,” Ferreras shared in a phone interview from his home in Cuba. “They turned the story around. They put it the way they wanted. That really hurt me.”
The film does appear to deliver mixed signals in that regard. While there is a disclaimer that the film is a “work of fiction,” including that any resemblance to real-life individuals is coincidental, there’s another tag that claims “inspired by real events.” There’s also a photo at the end featuring Mestre’s photo and a reference to her real-life death.
David M. Rosenthal, the film’s writer and director, delivered the following statement in response:
“This is a fictionalization of stories that were very much on the public eye — from documentaries to many articles and books about this,” Rosenthal said. “What I wrote is fiction, with fictional characters…I’m sure he’s trying to make a buck here by suing Netflix.”
There definitely are numerous retellings of the lives of Ferreras and Mestre. Though Ferreras has been adamant about his side of the story and his innocence. He consistently claims that Mestre’s death was indeed accidental and a result of technical errors with her equipment. Furthermore, he claims that no one involved with No Limit contacted him about the project.
“As the movie was going on I started suffering and suffering,” he said. “Everything was very disturbing. Imagine — without knowing — you see a movie that’s about your life and your story with your late wife, and it gets you by surprise.”
“They put Audrey like she was cheating on me,” he continued. “She was an angel.”
As a result, Ferreras is said to have been swarmed with backlash from viewers accusing him of killing Mestre. His lawyer, Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, released the following statement claiming that the filmmakers behind No Limit engaged in “clear and depiscable libel” with the release of the film:
“Filmmakers cannot make a film about a real-life situation and simply change some names and dress it up as fiction in order to escape liability for defamation,” he said. “I am astounded that the defendants’ lawyers did not strongly advise them against doing so. I can see a jury awarding Pipin a very significant amount of damages.”
Netflix has yet to make a formal comment about being sued over the matter. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates as we have them.