ICE MOTHER

Ice swimmer Broňa lives with his twelve hens in a decommissioned omnibus. Hana is widowed and lives alone in an old villa on the edge of the city. When Hana’s grandson Ivanek runs off one afternoon while grocery shopping, she runs into the grumpy loner Broňa and the two fall head over heels in love. Up until this moment Hana’s life has unfolded in sad monotony; weekend visits from her two sons with their families were the sole highlights. Alas, even those regularly ended in conflict, as brothers Petr and Ivan have long since grown apart and Hana still plays the role of the doting mother who puts everyone else’s needs before her own. But now ice swimming and Broňa rouse Hana out of her lethargy and fill her with a new sense of optimism.
In Bohdan Sláma’s sensitive portrait of love at a ripe age, Zuzana Kronerová (as Hana) and Pavel Nový (as Broňa) both deliver convincing performances. In beautiful and intense scenes, Sláma tells the story of two individuals who refuse to be consigned to the scrapheap – even if it means braving awkward sex or that purifying solo dip in an ice-cold river.