Director Eliška Andršová Cílková frames the film as an intimate, artistic exploration of the daily rhythm and beauty of elite sport, rather than just a highlight reel of victories.
The real drama? The film captures the exact moment Barbora Vránková, a three-time national champion, walks away from the European Championships—the event she trained for her entire life—just before it begins.
Premiering Oct. 24 at Ji.hlava, the doc shows Vránková training in Italy from ages 15-18. It hits HBO Max in Europe on Dec. 4, featuring audio of 'blades scraping' and Vránková admitting, 'Sometimes I fall.'
This isn't just a sports doc; it's an autopsy of a dream. We get to watch a prodigy shatter under the weight of perfectionism, and it’s brutally fascinating.
If you think elite figure skating is all glitter and grace, think again. The new documentary *Up Again*, directed by Eliška Andršová Cílková, is peeling back the sequins to reveal the sweat, the pain, and the sheer terror of growing up under the microscope. The film, which serves as Cílková’s feature debut, offers a time-lapse portrait of Barbora Vránková, a three-time Czech figure skating champion, capturing her most pivotal years between the ages of 15 and 18.
This isn't your typical highlight reel; it’s a raw, observational look at a world where a person’s worth is ruthlessly measured by scores and rankings. The drama hits a crescendo when Vránková, who is shown training daily among Europe’s elite in Italy, makes the heartbreaking decision to withdraw from the European Championships. This was the event she had prepared for her entire life, the culmination of years of sacrifice.
As the film’s synopsis starkly puts it, "As the pressure rises, a crisis follows." We are invited to witness the unraveling of a prodigy, not through dramatic re-enactments, but through the quiet, devastating reality of a young woman stepping off the ice when everyone expected her to glide across it. Director Cílková brings a personal connection to the narrative, having been part of the skating world since she was thirteen.
She notes that she started too late for an elite career, which allowed her to view the sport as a joy rather than a life-or-death pressure cooker. This perspective shaped the film’s unique aesthetic. Cílková revealed that her crew was allowed on the ice during some training sessions, shooting part of the documentary directly on skates.
This technique was designed to distinguish the film from conventional sports broadcasting, capturing the heavy breathing and the sounds of bodies fighting gravity with every jump. The trailer, exclusively premiered by *The Hollywood Reporter*, promises a fragile and intimate look behind the curtain. In a clip that will likely go viral among dance and sports enthusiasts, Vránková admits, "Sometimes I fall." It’s a simple line, but in the context of a documentary about the high-stakes world of competitive skating, it feels like a confession.
The film is a co-production with HBO Europe and FAMU, supported by the Czech Audiovisual Fund, ensuring it has the backing to reach a wide audience. Mark your calendars: the world premiere is set for October 24 at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, followed by a Czech theatrical release on October 29 and a European HBO Max debut on December 4.
