Five years following Still Processing, Sophy Romvari finally makes her feature debut with Blue Heron, a narratively challenging – yet tremendously rewarding – film about the nature of memory and grief.
Romvari’s confident direction shines in demonstrating a sense of painful nostalgia. In Blue Heron everything has a purpose. The sound design oscillates between touchmarks of a bygone era – think old commercials, The Looney Toons soundtrack – and a haunting evocative score. The use of 35mm film stock paints a world painfully awash in the feel of something from before.
All Sasha (Eylul Given) can do is watch as her brother Jeremy (Edik Beddoes) descends further into his failing mental health. Her parents have no solutions; there simply might not be one. But by centering Sasha’s perspective at the forefront, Romvari is able to turn Blue Heron into an interrogation of our own memory. What can we remember of that which hurts us?
This film is difficult to discuss for two reasons. One is that the film relies very heavily on a narrative twist, one that I cannot really talk about without spoiling the film, but also, one that fundamentally changes what the film is. The other is that the film is simply just so ephemeral, stitched together as a mosaic of sound, still photographs, snapshots, lived spaces. What I really wanted after this was done was to watch it again, both to understand what the film is trying to say, but also, to simply just feel the film.
Image Credit: Courtesy of TIFF
- Rated: Unrated
- Genre: Drama
- Release Date: 9/5/2025
- Directed by: Sophy Romvari
- Starring: Ádám Tompa, Amy Zimmer, Edik Beddoes, Eylul Guven, Iringó Réti, Liam Serg, Lucy Turnbull, Preston Drabble
- Produced by: Gábor Osváth, Ryan Bobkin, Sara Wylie, Sophy Romvari
- Written by: Sophy Romvari
- Studio: Boddah, MEMORY, Nine Behind Productions, Simbelle Productions, Tinygiant
