Welllington community-based production company Torchlight Films impressed with their first two very modest outings: Taking the Waewae Express in 2009, was about the aftermath of a car accident, and Hook, Line and Sinker two years later, which explored the impact on a family when the truckie breadwinner failed an eye test.
Both told small stories tightly, avoiding cheap tricks and creating real, believable characters on a budget barely bigger than zero.
The new one is technically more ambitious (and more polished: Alun Bollinger and Waka Attewell shot it, Annie Collins' editing is a dream and the score is full of rich pleasures) but something has been lost in the attempt to up the production ante.
![Scene from The Great Maiden's Blush.](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/AKPK6IAVGB37GBGEQFTVBQ6LIA.jpg?auth=a8b41d7bb3eb4a5fd2c97191f7b8c90b20997470dae64ac1e99af6d943866a03&width=16&height=9&quality=70&smart=true)
The fragmented, elliptical narrative approach requires something dramatically big to be at stake if it is really going to work: the viewer needs to pick up clues that allow realisation to dawn before the big reveal.