Hard as Puck Special Q&A Screening

Special Q&A Screening

Tickets now on sale!

Wednesday, 4 November
Luna Leederville
5:45pm arrivals for
6:30pm session start

Hard as Puck follows a struggling para ice hockey club in Western Australia. With no money, no sponsors, and barely enough players, they rely on grants to get by. But when the enigmatic founder (and chief grant procurer) prepares to step away, the club is thrown into turmoil...

The Garden Island Pirates shouldn’t exist. They’re a para ice hockey club in Perth, Western Australia – The summers are scorching, the ice rinks are few, and a severe lack of grants and sponsorships threatens to end the club for good.

When the enigmatic founder, Dan, prepares to step away, a handful of stubborn, funny, passionate players must come together to keep the club alive; Mike, who was ‘thrown into the snake pit’ as president, struggles to balance leadership with his family life, leaving self-described, ‘crap player,’ Bell, and her sidekick/husband/cheerleader Cliff to take the reins.

They run fundraisers, figure out the paperwork and try valiantly to hold the club together amidst growing resentment. It’s only when hard-headed competitor Rosa-Lee emerges as a new force in the team – determined to raise the standards at any cost – that they find the missing piece the club needs.

As the season kicks off, an unexpected opportunity emerges: the first-ever Women’s World Championships. They are being held in Slovakia, and Australia has signed up a team... If they can find the players. It’s no longer just Pirates versus Pirates, it’s Pirates versus the world and a genuine chance for the sport, and our trusty Pirates, to be part of history...

Hard as Puck captures both the messy reality behind grassroots clubs – the politics and the personal battles – along with the challenges of being an underdog at a global level. It’s Rats in the Ranks meets Cool Runnings with a little more swearing and a lot more bruises.

Festivals

2026 Melbourne International Film Festival | World Premiere

Season starts November 26 at Luna Leederville.