BLAZE

Australia, 2022, 101 minutes, Colour.

Julia Savage, Simon Baker, Yael Stone, Josh Lawson, Heather Mitchell, John Waters, Will MacDonald.

Directed by Del Kathryn Barton.

Blaze is intriguing for those audiences who enjoy being intrigued. However, underlying the intriguing visuals is a straightforward plotline, a 12-year-old girl witnesses a violent rape in a lane, is unable to help, the woman dead, the girl testifying in pre-trial, having to decide whether she will testify during the trial itself.

Blaze, in fact, is the name of the young girl. We see her first as a little girl, sitting in a room with a backdrop of tall panels of exotic paintings. Then we see her at 12. But, what we see is the dramatic psychic imagination of Blaze, a lover of Lord of the Rings, her room full of pairs of toys which she sees come alive, but the presence of an enormous Dragon, bright scarlet colours and feathers, like a gigantic toy, which is her companion,, who embraces her, shelters her. She can move from the realism of breakfast with her father (Simon Baker) back into her exotic imagination.

She does go to school. She has a friend at school in whom she confides. She loves her father but becomes an aspirated with him, and he definitely with her. But, it is on the way home from school that she witnesses the crime, the couple played by Yael Stone and Josh Lawson. And, so, her inability to help, her hiding, her fears, all become part of her psychic and traumatic imagination. In looking at the poster for the film, one sees a miniature Dragon in the mouth of Blaze, her face angry, and the Dragon breathing forth a stream of flames. This scene occurs in the-trial hearing when she looks at the accused and screams/streams the flames at him.

Blaze is sent to therapy but the therapist is too matter-of-fact. It is only later, when her exasperated father sends her for therapy that she finds a sympathetic soul mate, with a cast in her eye, and covered in tattoos, visually arresting for Blaze. And, while away, she has her first period.

There is all kind of visual symbolism at the end, Blaze making a decision about what she will do for the court case, then facing her Dragon, going through the motions of destroying it, but then becoming one with her Dragon, her future Dragon personality.

An unexpected, dramatic, visually arresting and tantalising study of a young girl and her traumas.

1. The title? The tone? A girl’s name? Dragons on fire? And the blaze issuing from Blaze’s mouth during the court hearing, attacking the rapist?
2. The style of the film, visual, the blend of the real with the surreal? Blazer\’s room, the toys, her imagination, the larger-than-life Dragon, her imaginary interactions with it, dreams? The small Dragon and its flames? The contrast with the surreal and the ordinary sequences of daily life, at home, in the street, at school, the court? The musical score?
3. The city setting, the home, the school, the lane where the attack took place, the courtroom, therapy sessions?
4. The opening, Blaze Is a Little girl, the artwork behind her, the subjects in style, her imagination?
5. Blaze living with her father, sympathetic, sharing with her, his concern, the absent mother? The growing difficulties, the clashes, Blaze and her assertiveness, the father’s desperation, the therapist, in the court, sending her away? Her return, the reconciliation, the plan for her testimony?
6. Blaze and her testimony in court, the harsh attitudes of the lawyers and the judge? The outburst of the family, the young son? And Blaze later meeting with him at school, discussions with him?
7. Blaze, her friends, sharing? But the loner?
8. The episode in the street, her walking home, the man attacking the woman, Blaze hiding, listening, the argument, the physical violence, the sexual violence, the rape, his leaving, the woman left for dead? Her death? The arrival of the police, examinations and questions? The effect on Blaze, in her feelings, imagination? The later seeing the man in the street, with his girlfriend, her accosting him, his denying any knowledge of her?
9. Her father’s concern, the therapy session, ineffectual? Her father sending her away, the institution, her room, further imagination, fears? Her rapport with the therapist, the cast in the eye, all the tattoos, the communication, the therapist and her affirmation? The effect on Blaze? And the further puzzle, while she was away, her having her period? The effect on her?
10. The discussions about how to handle the court case, whether Blaze be present not, giving pre-trial testimony in private? The decisions, the bond between father and daughter, hope for the future?