Set on Vancouver Island in the late 1990s, Blue Heron follows
eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family as they attempt to build a new life, only to be destabilised by the increasingly dangerous behaviour of her older brother, Jeremy. Drawing on her own memories, filmmaker Sophy Romvari shapes a deeply personal portrait of childhood, family fractures, and the fragility of recollection.
The Garden Cinema View:
Sophy Romvari’s feature debut should strike a chord with anyone who grew up, or raised children, during the 1990s. She evokes such an authentic sense of family dynamics, and time and place, that as the temporality and narrative starts to shift, the viewer begins to feel they are moving through lived memories.
Blue Heron presents us with an idyllic Vancouver Island setting. But this is also an isolated location, and one which sets the loneliness of living with a difficult child/sibling into relief. The strain of home life, and the worrying lack of support available, are juxtaposed against this stunning coastal world which, in such circumstances, feels like the edge of the world.
Romvari’s unusual and exciting directorial choices in the latter stage of the film move Blue Heron into a study of the representation of memory itself, evoking but never forcing strong emotions. Not only is this an impressive debut, but it’s one of the year’s best films.
