Sat May 26 | 3:00 pm | PC

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Director: Håkan Berthas, Sweden, 2006, 58 minutes
This film has been classified for all ages; no membership required.

Dolkar, a young Buddhist woman from Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas, wants to play ice hockey. But boys and men have dominated the sport ever since the army introduced it to the northern Indian province. In 2005, when a group of young women decide that they have the right to participate in the national ice hockey championship, Dolkar, a passionate and talented student, makes women’s hockey her mission.

The men in charge of the tournament prefer ice dance from the women, but when they are prevented from taking part in the games the women protest and Dolkar becomes their natural leader. Dolkar and her friends in school have to create all that is needed for hockey from scratch, everything from hockey skates and sticks to the very ice they skate on.

When the next year’s tournament is approaching the girls make a new attempt to enter. They face each problem head on: thin ice, bad equipment, no coaching. When they find American coach Deb, they make the dangerous trip over the mountain to the Muslim village of Kargil and create a joint team. Side by side the Buddhist and Muslim girls challenge the men in charge. When they are finally allowed to take part in the competition they still have to fight for their rights, as the men change the rules and push the girls around.

Director and hockey lover Håkan Berthas films Dolkar and her teammates in an unobtrusive style, leaving plenty of room for the beauty of the Himalayas as backdrop to the struggle for the equal rights of women in sport.

Preceded by:

Football   / Fodbold

Director: Sussie Weinold, Denmark, 2006, 10 minutes
Danish with English subtitles
The joy of playing –  children in Zambia make their own ball and then soccer play begins!

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