Song of Bacchus is the script for a feature film set in New Zealand wine country, Hawke’s Bay. It centres on a vineyard estate named Quatro, which is modelled on Hawke’s Bay’s Ngatarawa winery, with the exceptions of a churchlike annexe adjoining the stables winery, and a grand homestead near it.

Encompassing the genre motifs of a romantic mystery, the screenplay traces the heroic psychological journey of 32-year-old Ruth Cooper as she struggles to overcome the constraints of her ‘velvet prison’ at Quatro. There she has everything but nothing, all the comforts of the good life but no freedom for herself. Her grandmother, Louisa, who embodies artifice, is the main character behind Ruth’s constraint. Eventually Ruth frees herself from Louisa’s artifice to live a life of her own choosing, away from Quatro, in humbler surrounds where she answers first and foremost to herself.

The script is aimed at a mainstream audience and, while its backdrop is a lush wine festival, its action occurs mainly in one location — Quatro. It would therefore fit the confines of a low budget film.