Barbora Vrankova<\/a> because, wherever she goes, \u201cmentally, she is still on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tA former competitive skater herself, the director, who also cut the film and composed the score, says she first came across Vrankova, naturally enough, on the ice.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThanks to my own experience on the ice,\u201d she says, \u201cI understand the scoring system and the technical language of figure skating. This shared understanding made it easy for me to connect with Barbora, who was the reigning Czech national champion at the time. Over the following three years, we gradually became close to her family. I\u2019m very grateful for the trust they placed in us and for allowing us to observe not only Barbora\u2019s sporting career, but also the everyday moments behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAs the protagonist audiences first meet at age 15 takes on greater and greater challenges \u2013 eventually spending time away from home at a prestigious Italian skating school and then in the United States \u2013 pressure grows not just for Vrankova but for her family.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs the director of the Czech Joy entry puts it, \u201cA triple jump on ice skates lasts just a few seconds but requires years of physical training and mental isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWith no time to attend a regular school, her days are filled with online lessons, physiotherapy sessions and a strict training regimen.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe action is captured through remarkable camera work that follows Vrankova\u2019s every move on the ice, often at dizzying speeds and arcs.<\/p>\n
\n\tThroughout, the scraping of blades and the rumble of natural background sounds all play key roles.<\/p>\n
\n\tCilkova Andrsova says sound is not for background in her work \u2013 instead, it\u2019s \u201ca path to the themes the film explores: performance, expectations and the search for one\u2019s own place in a world that constantly judges people by their results.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHer previous docu \u201cPripyat Piano\u201d was also built around sound, exploring the aural landscape remaining around pianos in homes that were abandoned in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone \u2013 the area from where thousands were ordered to relocate after the nuclear plant disaster of 1986.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor her new film, she says, a more personal balancing act was needed.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think the biggest challenge was finding the right balance between being close enough to capture intimate moments and remaining as unobtrusive as possible. Barbora was growing up during our filming, from 15 to 18 years old. And the world of elite figure skating is surprisingly closed to outsiders. For example, at the international training center in Egna, Italy, where we started filming, sometimes even parents were not allowed to watch the training sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAs for approaching the demands of filming, she says, \u201cthe technical conditions were also extremely challenging. Imagine 20 figure skaters jumping simultaneously, loud pop music playing almost constantly, and coaches shouting across the ice rink. And of course, you cannot expect someone performing triple jumps to wear a microphone! But gradually, these difficulties became part of our creative approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBuilding on her aural approach to her previous film, the director says, \u201cI built a subtle second layer of storytelling through sound, reflecting Barbora\u2019s inner world. So while I approached the images in a purely observational way, filming her closely from her perspective,\u201d she explains, \u201cI occasionally allowed myself a little more creative freedom with the sound.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSome sequences were filmed \u201cliterally from the ice, skating alongside Barbora with our cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe director\u2019s experience as a skater helped her guide her cinematographers \u201cand follow her movements more naturally. I didn\u2019t want to create a conventional sports documentary with the visual language of television coverage. I wanted the audience to experience the physical reality of skating from very close.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAlways conscious of respecting her subject\u2019s well-being, Cilkova Andrsova at one point asked her team to stop filming after Vrankova struggled with several falls.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBut later, Barbora herself told me that falling was simply part of figure skating, and that next time we should film everything. That was a very important moment for me. It showed how much trust had developed between us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile the filming was planned in great detail, says Cilkova Andrsova, one event threw her production for a loop: \u201cThe biggest surprise came when Barbora withdrew from the European Championships. For a competitive figure skater, the European Championships represent an enormous dream. It\u2019s the kind of competition athletes look forward to for their entire lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSome spend much of their childhood preparing for the opportunity, she adds. \u201cAnd suddenly, Barbora was not going. I really hadn\u2019t expected that. I think this was also the moment when I began to understand that our film was becoming something much more complex.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt raised a question that eventually became central to the film: Who are we when we are no longer defined by our achievements?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The immersive Czech film \u201cUp Again,\u201d screening in its world premiere at the Ji.hlava docu fest, starts in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[316556,6332,156,72769,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-646003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-barbora-vrankova","tag-documentaries-to-watch","tag-entertainment","tag-ji-hlava-documentary-film-festival","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}