Blaze 2023

Blaze, Julia Savage is a 12-year-old girl living in a Paddington terrace house, the only home she has ever known. Her bedroom is in the roof space, sparsely decorated apart from a display cabinet that holds a pair of cute china animals and a small white china dragon. She has an imaginary friend, a ceiling-high dragon with multiple breasts, a long snout and teeth like a crocodile, glistening eyes the size of bowling balls, and long black lashes that growls and breathes fire. She calls her friend Zephy.

Luke, Simon Baker is Blaze’s father, an otherwise solitary man who may work as an architect. He has no visible circle of friends or colleagues, and his own mother is his closest confidante. He is diligent and well-meaning, but unsure of how to be a father and often defensive in conversations with women.

Blaze is returning from a visit to the shops via a service lane, some short distance behind Hannah, [Yael Stone], and Jake, [Josh Lawson], who are unaware of her presence. Hannah and Jake were once lovers, and Jake wants to revisit that relationship, but Blaze feels embarrassed and hides while watching. Jake is insistent, and then violent: he throws Hannah to the bitumen. She tries to escape over a fence, but he forces her against an old tree and rapes her. Blaze drops her ice-cream and runs home, sobbing under her blanket. Luke asks after her distress, but she remains mute, and the distant wail of police sirens adds to the unease.

At the police station, Blaze’s phone is found at the scene, and she is treated as a potential witness; she is fingerprinted and a DNA swab is taken. A female doctor conducts a forensic examination.

Two weeks later Blaze is interviewed by Jade, a police psychologist, and at the committal hearing she identifies Jake as the rapist. Jake’s counsel asks intimidating questions that imply Blaze, by virtue of her age and naivety, might confuse rape with role-playing, and they question why, if concerned, she did not scream for help. Blaze’s response is symbolized on screen by flames from the white dragon on her wall. Luke learns that Blaze’s testimony has been discounted as unreliable. Jake has admitted to consensual sex with Hannah; any assault is suggested to be later, by someone else.

Blaze then finds Hannah’s surname Blum on the internet and discovers websites devoted to female attack victims. She locates Hannah’s social media page, and is drawn into her life story, filling Blaze’s wall with pictures of Hannah.

The relationship with her father remains tense. He drops Blaze at her regular judo class, but Blaze insists on returning by bus. At the dojo, she and her friend Anna discuss sex and virginity. On the ride home, Blaze recognizes Jake through the window and screams, beating the bus window with her forehead and drawing blood. Blaze is sedated and admitted to a psychiatric clinic, where she is cared for and later released into her father’s custody with medication to be taken with meals. She worries that under medication she will lose her dragon Zephy.

Weeks go by with no noticeable improvement. Blaze hides the capsules in a figurine; when the drugs wear off, her torpidity turns to manic activity—hanging the figures by woolen threads, attached to the ceiling with wax that she melts with a gas lighter. Luke is furious at the risk to their home. Blaze is chastened but no longer catatonic.

She returns to her judo class and competes bravely, cheered from the gallery by her father. When he sobs after embracing her, she feels embarrassed. Outside the dojo, she bravely stares down a loitering adult male until he turns and walks away.

Blaze and Anna discover Jake’s home address and confront him after school, saying, “I know what I saw.” His female companion is mystified; he shrugs and denies knowing what it is about. When she returns home, the photos, her laptop and china figures are gone; Luke has found the hidden capsules. She remains unrepentant. The next morning she starts the car in the garage and, with a squeal of tires, backs across the road, knocking down her father and causing minor damage. She is re-admitted to the psychology ward. A fellow patient—a boy diagnosed with bipolar disorder—offers comfort as they sleep beside each other. The next day she meets a counselor, a young woman with prominent tattoos and only one functioning eye; Blaze lets down her guard. The counselor candidly answers Blaze’s concerns. That night she experiences her first menstrual period.

In the closing scenes, now aged 13, the criminal trial is about to begin and Blaze has the option of testifying. She befriends an older schoolmate who advises her to speak the truth, and she passes him her white china dragon as a symbol of her resolve. Returning home, she confidently tells her father that she plans to take the stand.