BLAZE

Unlike her classmates who are giggling while drawing dicks on bus stops, twelve-year-old Blaze is not quite ready yet to leave behind the innocent joys of childhood. Like playing with figurines, eating ice-cream and hanging out with her huge, imaginary dragon. But one event is going to jolt her into the ugliest reality of adulthood. On her way to school, she witnesses a woman getting brutally raped and murdered by her co-worker while Blaze’s body and mind are in a state of shock, unable to intervene… Not only does this profoundly traumatize her, as the sole witness of the crime, she’s also thrown into the frightening worlds of courtrooms, police stations, doctors and therapists. Nobody, not even her dad, who is dying to help her but at a loss of how to do so, can get through to her. Nobody, except maybe her dragon… Let’s talk about the dragon in the room! A wonderful creature made not of fire and brimstone, but of feathers and diamonds, like a crossbreeding between a shōjo manga and Puff, the Magic (or downright Psychedelic) Dragon. A magnificent beast that is completely in line with the maximalist aesthetic of Kathryn Del Barton, who has already made a name for herself in the fine arts and now applies the same lesson (more is, simply, more) to her debut feature film, cramming it with different styles of animation (puppetry, digital fx, stop-motion…), lots of music (Cocteau Twins! Nick Cave!) and above all, an unbridled amount of imagination.