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Azadi On Ice

Nick, wearing a black helmet, looks focused during a hockey game

Azadi on Ice is a short documentary film that tells the story of an exiled Iranian athlete pursuing his hockey dreams and finding belonging in Colorado while his homeland descends further into crisis.

Nick Hedayatpour learned to ice skate at 22 years old in Malaysia. Within five years, he had achieved the improbable: a spot on Iran’s first national hockey team. But when women-led protests against the regime turned deadly, Nick refused to represent a government he opposed and spoke out — a decision that ultimately pushed him into exile.

Now living in Colorado, Nick chases another unlikely dream: playing for a semi-professional hockey team in the Rocky Mountains. As he trains to make the starting lineup with the Breckenridge Vipers, protests, crackdowns, and the threat of war swell into Iran’s largest wave of unrest in decades. Through sporadic phone calls with family amidst an internet blackout, Nick copes with the guilt and anxiety of distance by protesting locally and pouring his anger out on the ice. Still, the upheaval sparks a fragile hope that real change and freedom may finally be within reach.

Blending intimate verité with the fragmented digital reality of exile, Azadi on Ice unfolds over the course of a hockey season, braiding Nick’s pursuit on the rink with the mounting chaos in Iran. At its core, the film traces the emotional toll of living between worlds and asks a quietly urgent question: what does it mean to chase personal dreams while your homeland is in crisis?

Our hope is for this film to immerse audiences in the tensions of exile – of living between worlds and searching for belonging – and dare them to pursue their improbable dreams.

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