Blaze is a standout feature of this year’s MIFF selection, directed by renowned Australian artist Del Kathryn Barton, starring Josh Lawson, Julia Savage, Simon Baker and Yael Stone, in a visually astounding magic realist journey through femininity and female rage.
When twelve year old Blaze encounters a vicious rape one afternoon, she is plunged into the tumultuous depths of her psychology, wherein she reckons with, and comes to understand, her own female rage.
Alongside a dragon who lives in her imagination as a protector, Blaze imitates strength for as far as it will take her, before she must face head-on the trauma she now carries. This beautiful coming of age tale interrogates the sexual assault epidemic, and celebrates womanhood, as our protagonist is flung from highs to lows, searching for a new sense of safety and identity in the cruel adult world she’s been exposed to.
Barton uses a cinematographic blend of naturalism and magic realism to thematically marry the two worlds of this story together; that is, the adult world of the vicious crime, the rigid courts, the psychiatric ward, against Blaze’s vibrant interior mind space. In her dreamt up para-world, Blaze’s dragon is unapologetically feminine: densely coated in pinks, purples, sequins and sparkles, breasts and vagina-like shapes. Here, her femininity is unrestrained and uncorrupted. The consequent stylistic dissonance against the raw, undecorated depiction of reality works to dramatise the conflict Blaze grapples with.
The skilfully chosen soundtrack is entrapping, elevating these visionary cut-aways and seamlessly allowing narrative to side-step into the psychological, wholly enveloping the emotional journey of escapism, and rage, empowerment, and bravery.
All in all, Blaze is a hard-hitting and necessary film, set to hit cinemas August 25th. It’s always a pleasure to enjoy more expertly created, seriously good Australian cinema.
Madison Stephens
Melbourne International Film Festival