Visualising an emotional response such as trauma is tremendously difficult: there’s no rulebook, no codes and conventions, no set formula through which it can be achieved. Two-time Archibald-winning painter Del Kathryn Barton, who is well practised in creating symbolic works full of psychedelic colours and quirky details, makes it a core feature of her confronting and audaciously crafted feature film debut, which follows a 12-year-old girl whose life is upended after she witnesses a rape and murder.
The event, which is edited in an unusually discordant style as if the very essence of film is struggling to deal with it, occurs early in the runtime, before Barton fully merges the protagonist’s state of mind with the form and content of the film, and unveils the other-worldly creations that provide its distinctive visual flavour. Shortly after the horrible MacGuffin, we see visions of an imaginary dragon Blaze (Julia Savage) draws on for strength, an amazingly tactile creation made up of feathery parts, strange felts and glittery bits, with huge bulbous black eyes and a unicorn-like horn.
