BLUE HERON

(director/writer: Sophy Romvari; cinematographer: Maya Bankovic; editor: Kurt Walker; music: Blitz/Berlin; cast: Eylul Guyen (Sasha), Iringo Reti (mother), Adam Tompa (father), Edik Beddoes (Jeremy), Amy Zimmer (adult Sasha), Liam Serg (Henry), Preston Drabble (Felix), Jecca Beauchamp (Becky), Lucy Turnbull (Emma); Runtime: 90; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Ryan Bobkin, Gabor Osvath Sara Wylie, Sophy Romvari; Janus Films; 2025)

“A semi-autobiographical film on childhood memories.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

The Canadian-Hungarian filmmaker Sophy Romvari (“It’s What Each Person Needs”/”Still Processing”) makes a wonderful intimate semi-autobiographical film on childhood memories.

The innocent 8-year-old Sasha (Eylul Guyen), the youngest in her large Hungarian immigrant family, and her father (Adam Tompa), her mother (Iringo Reti), and her three older brothers Henry (Liam Serg), Felix (Preston Drabble), and the oldest teenage brother Jeremy (Edik Beddoes), relocate in the 1990s to Vancouver Island.

Though living in an idyllic spot, in the suburbs, the mentally troubled Jeremy’s dangerous actions threaten their stable life, as he shoplifts and walks on the rooftop of their house threatening to jump. He is eerily quiet, suicidal and emotionally withdrawn from the family.

The film moves forward 20 years and Sasha (Amy Zimmer) is an adult working as a documentary filmmaker, and trying to piece together her fractured childhood memories by making a film on Jeremy.

The arthouse film is slow paced but emotionally powerful.

 
It played at the Locarno Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 5/30/2026  GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com