The Blaze

Drama, Action, Thriller · 2023

Disaster movies tend to inhabit the close-but-not-too-close realm of the ‘what if?’, but Quentin Reynaud’s taut drama evokes a reality that is painfully immediate, as the world combusts around us. Alex Lutz (recently seen as the son in Gaspar Noé’s Vortex) plays a man determined to escape with his elderly father (the ineffable André Dussollier) from a wildfire that is rapidly approaching their forested area of southern France. The pair know all the local roads, and the secret detours, but when they are caught in a dead end, they seem to be running out of possible exits. At once road movie, claustrophobic jeopardy thriller and portrait of a prickly but tender father-son relationship, this finely acted and executed film expertly lays on the heat.

Starring

Léonard Glowinski, Alex Lutz, André Dussollier, Valérie Espagne, Sophie Parel, Vincent Mathias, Laura Sépul, Pascal Le Guellec, Vallier Vaudin, Paul Heymans

Director

Quentin Reynaud