Up Again is the feature debut of Czech director and composer Eliška Andršová Cílková. The time-lapse portrait of Barbora Vránková, a three-time Czech figure skating champion, captures a pivotal period in her life between the ages of 15 and 18.
Getting its world premiere at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival on Oct. 24 in both the fest’s First Lights and Czech Joy Competition, the film will be released in Czech cinemas on Oct. 29 by Pilot Film and nutprodukce. Up Again will then become available on HBO Max in all European territories from Dec. 4.
The doc, debuting in the Czech city of Jihlava, sees Vránková training every day among Europe’s figure skating elite in Italy, pursuing her dream: to become European – perhaps even world – champion. “Barbora is growing up in a world where a person’s worth is measured by performance, scores and rankings,” highlights a film synopsis. “As the pressure rises, a crisis follows, and shortly before her first European Championships – the event she has prepared for her whole life, she withdraws.”
The observational film promises “a fragile, intimate look behind the curtain of elite figure skating,” a world rarely seen up close. Andršová Cílková (short films From Close-Up to Wide Shot, Pripyat Piano), directed Up Again and also composed its score.
“Spinning – pirouette – loop. From the stands, figure skating looks effortless,” the filmmaker says. “Up close, though, it is full of heavy breathing, blades scraping the ice and the sounds of a body fighting gravity with every jump.”
And she shares: “Figure skating has been part of my life since I was thirteen. I started at an age when it was already too late to think about an elite career, so the sport could remain, above all, a joy I keep coming back to. My own experience on the ice also shaped the way the film was made. More than Barbora’s results, we were interested in what the world of elite sport looks like from the inside. We captured its daily rhythm, its beauty and its pressure – and what happens to a person who grows up within it.”
Andršová Cílková also explains: “During some training sessions we were allowed on the ice together with Barbora, so we shot part of the film directly on skates, to set ourselves apart, visually and sonically, as much as possible from conventional sports broadcasting.”
Up Again is a co-production of nutprodukce, HBO Europe and FAMU in Prague. The lead producers are Lukáš Kokeš for nutprodukce, Hanka Kastelicová and Tereza Bóna Keilová for HBO Europe, and Lenka Medová and Tomáš Šimon for Studio FAMU. The film was supported by the Czech Audiovisual Fund and Creative Europe MEDIA.
THR can now exclusively premiere the trailer for Up Again. Prepare to get a first glimpse of the dedication, the sweat, the pain, the tears – and much more. After all, as the figure skater says in the trailer: “Sometimes I fall.”