How ‘Up Again’ Director Captured the Rise of a Teenage Figure Skating Champion: ‘The Technical Conditions Were Extremely Challenging’

Oct 30, 2026 6:17am PT How ‘Up Again’ Director Captured the Rise of a Teenage Figure Skating Champion: ‘The Technical Conditions Were Extremely Challenging’

By Will Tizard

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Will Tizard

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The immersive Czech film “Up Again,” screening in its world premiere at the Ji.hlava docu fest, starts in darkness as the unmistakable sound of ice skates scraping at high speed fills the cinema.

Director Eliska Cilkova Andrsova says it’s a motif she returns to again and again throughout her three-year chronicle of the rise of teenage champion Czech figure skater Barbora Vrankova because, wherever she goes, “mentally, she is still on the ice.”

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