How We Made Free Skate

Free Skate is a 2022 Finnish drama-thriller film directed by Roope Olenius. The feature film tells the story of a promising figure skater who flees from Russia to Finland to escape her inhumane circumstances. The film was written by a former aesthetic group gymnastics world champion Veera W. Vilo (Tuftland, Bunny the Killer Thing), who also plays the lead role. Free Skate is based on the filmmakers' own experiences as top athletes as well as the female athletes' and dancers' stories from around the world that came apparent during the #MeToo movement. The film discusses the demanding routines and methods of the figure skating world but also sheds some light to the unfortunate connection between female sports and human trafficking. The film also stars Leena Uotila, Karoliina Blackburn, Jevgeni Haukka, Saara Elina, Miikka J. Anttila, Ilona Chevakova and Viivi Pumpanen. Belgian Olympiad, European Champion and World Championship Silver Medalist Loena Hendrickx does the most demanding figure skating stunts in the film. Teea Siltanen, one of the producers of the film, is a synchronized skating world champion 2013. The multilingual (Finnish, English, Russian) film marks the second directorial film of Roope Olenius.