The Past Seen Through a Child’s Eyes

MOVIE REVIEW
Blue Heron
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Genre: Drama
Year Released: 2025, 2026
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director(s): Sophy Romvari
Writer(s): Sophy Romvari
Cast: Eylul Guven, Amy Zimmer, Iringó Réti, Ádám Tompa, Edik Beddoes, Liam Serg
Where to Watch: opens April 17, 2026, in NYC & April 24 in LA, then Nationwide in May

RAVING REVIEW: A family moves to Vancouver Island hoping for a reset, but BLUE HERON makes it clear pretty quickly that geography doesn’t fix what’s already fractured. Writer/director Sophy Romvari builds this story through the perspective of a child who doesn’t grasp how to explain what’s going wrong around her, which forces the film to communicate through behavior, silence, and the shifts in how people exist in the same space. It’s not interested in spelling things out, and that decision shapes everything that follows.

At its core, this is a story about memory and the ways we reshape it to survive. Told largely from the perspective of young Sasha, the film reconstructs a late-1990s childhood on Vancouver Island with an almost disarming level of intimacy. What initially feels like a nostalgic portrait of family life gradually reveals something far more complicated, with tension building not through dramatics, but through behavior that doesn’t quite fit, moments that sit too long, and silences that say more than any line of dialogue could.

Eylul Guven carries much of the film without ever feeling like she’s “performing” in a traditional sense. There’s a natural presence here that makes Sasha feel less like a character and more like a window into how children process instability. She doesn’t always understand what’s happening around her, and the film doesn’t force her to. That restraint is the key. It allows the audience to exist in that same space of understanding, where something is clearly wrong, but the ability to wrap your head around it all is just out of reach.

The dynamic within the family is where BLUE HERON finds its emotional footing. Iringó Réti and Ádám Tompa ground the parental roles with a sense of exhaustion rather than heightened drama. You can feel the weight of decisions forming long before they’re spoken, and when those decisions finally come into focus, they don’t feel like twists or reveals; they feel inevitable. That sense of certainty runs through the entire film, shaping every interaction.

Edik Beddoes as Jeremy is particularly impressive, not because the film tries to explain him, but because it doesn’t. His presence is disruptive in a way that’s difficult to define, and that unknown becomes part of the tension. The film avoids turning him into a symbol, instead allowing his behavior to exist as something the family has to navigate without answers. That choice keeps the focus where it belongs, not on labeling the problem, but on the ripple effect it creates.

Romvari leans into a memory-based approach, allowing scenes to feel like isolated moments that gradually build a larger picture. There are times when that approach risks feeling too fragmented, especially for viewers expecting a more traditional progression. But when it clicks, it creates something immersive. The film doesn’t tell you how to feel about the past; it lets you experience how it lingers.

One of the more interesting elements comes in how the film incorporates an older version of Sasha. Rather than serving as a simple framing device, this perspective adds another layer to the idea of memory. It suggests that what we’re watching isn’t just a recollection, but an attempt to understand something that never made sense at the time. That added dimension gives the film a reflective quality that deepens its impact without overexplaining anything.

Where BLUE HERON really stands apart is in its willingness to sit in discomfort. There’s no rush to resolve tension, no emotional release designed to reassure the audience. Instead, it leans into the reality that some experiences don’t offer closure. Every scene feels intentional, even when it isn’t immediately clear how it connects to the larger narrative. Romvari shows a strong understanding of how memory works, not as a linear sequence, but as a collection of impressions that gain meaning over time. That perspective shapes the entire experience, turning what could have been a straightforward family drama into something more reflective.

This is a confident debut that shows a filmmaker with a distinct voice. Romvari isn’t interested in conventional storytelling, and that choice results in a film that feels personal in a way that’s difficult to replicate. It’s not trying to be universally accessible. What it offers instead is something more specific, an exploration of how we remember, how we process, and how we carry the past forward, whether we fully understand it or not. BLUE HERON doesn’t hand you answers, and it doesn’t pretend to. What it does is create a space where those questions can exist, unresolved but meaningful. That alone makes it worth experiencing.

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[photo courtesy of JANUS FILMS, BODDAH, MEMORY, NINE BEHIND PRODUCTIONS, SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS, TINYGIANT, URSA MAJOR PRODUCTIONS]

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