While Riley, the main character of the Oscar-winning animated film In the Head and its sequel, which became the most successful animated film of all time, puts on a hockey jersey and picks up a hockey stick with complete ease, her Czech peers sometimes still hear that hockey is not a sport for them. And yet the Czech national team has medals from the World Championship behind them and reached for them again! It is their path to top sport and the obstacles that they had to overcome in a purely male environment until recently that is captured in the first Czech film about women's hockey, created by no less talented female creators. Girls on the Ice! was directed by Tereza Vejvodová and Veronika Donutková and produced by Julia Marková Žáčková, who won the Czech Film Critics' Award for the drama Occupation and 13 nominations for the Czech Lion.
A documentary film from the world of top sports that follows the exceptional year of the Czech national team and shows the strength and determination of all women's hockey. During the season, which culminated in the first ever home world championship in front of record-breaking crowds, it captures the atmosphere in the cabin, the daily hard work on the ice and the emotions that accompany the journey towards a common goal. Authentic footage shows what it means to represent the Czech Republic at the highest level - and how the team won the hearts of Czech fans with its performance and story.
"I believe that when a person is purposeful and goes after what they want, and they also have a group of girls behind them who are bold and confident, something like prejudice ceases to exist. I don't really like this topic because I don't want it to be part of our story. I think we have to write it ourselves. Convince the public that what we are doing is right, and prove it not only to ourselves, but also to the people around us," says Tereza Sadilová, general manager of the women's national team.
In addition to the sporting commitment, the film also reveals less visible moments - the daily balancing act between professional sport and an environment that did not count on women's hockey for a long time. It offers not only a strong sports story, but also an undistorted view of the transformation that women's hockey in the Czech Republic is currently undergoing, and brings to light what it means to be a woman in a long-standing "purely male sport" - and why it is time for the world to finally see it.
Genre
Document, Sport
Original title
Holky na led!
Year
2025
Director
Tereza Vejvodová, Veronika Donutková
Camera
Veronika Donutková
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