Blue Heron

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Formally inventive and emotionally impactful, Sophy Romvari’s feature debut more than fulfills the potential the Toronto-based filmmaker displayed in her acclaimed series of short films. Like many of those predecessors, Blue Heron is acutely personal. The graceful opening scenes depict a period of transition for a Hungarian-Canadian family of six as they adapt to a new home on Vancouver Island in the late 1990s. Seen from the perspective of the youngest daughter Sasha (Eylul Guven), events range from the comfortably quotidian – family beach days and park outings, summer afternoon fun with trampolines and garden hoses – to those that take on a darker cast as the extent of the issues concerning one family member become clear. In sequences set years later, we witness an effort to grapple with this difficult past. Fascinating and moving as a meditation on grief, memory, and love, Blue Heron sees the filmmaker blur the borders between fiction and documentary in ways that aren’t soon forgotten, thereby confirming Romvari’s status as one of Canada’s most exceptional emerging filmmakers. Screenings with Open Captioning will be shown on Sun. May 17 at 3:45pm and Tues. May 26 at 4:00pm. For more information on Open Captioning, click here to be redirected to our Accessible Films page. Formally inventive and emotionally impactful, Sophy Romvari’s feature debut more than fulfills the potential the Toronto-based filmmaker displayed in her acclaimed series of short films. Like many of those predecessors, Blue Heron is acutely personal. The graceful opening scenes depict a period of transition for a Hungarian-Canadian family of six as they adapt to a new home on Vancouver Island in the late 1990s. Seen from the perspective of the youngest daughter Sasha (Eylul Guven), events range from the comfortably quotidian – family beach days and park outings, summer afternoon fun with trampolines and garden hoses – to those that take on a darker cast as the extent of the issues concerning one family member become clear. In sequences set years later, we witness an effort to grapple with this difficult past. Fascinating and moving as a meditation on grief, memory, and love, Blue Heron sees the filmmaker blur the borders between fiction and documentary in ways that aren’t soon forgotten, thereby confirming Romvari’s status as one of Canada’s most exceptional emerging filmmakers.