Blue Heron is a 2025 drama film written and directed by Sophy Romvari. Described as "semi-autobiographical,"[1] the film is based in part on Romvari's own childhood and her previous short film Still Processing.[2][3] The film stars Eylul Guven as Sasha, the eight-year-old daughter of a Hungarian immigrant family who relocate to Vancouver Island in the late 1990s while their oldest son Jeremy (Edik Beddoes) displays increasingly dangerous behavioural issues in their new environment. The cast also includes Ádám Tompa and Iringó Réti as Sasha's parents, Liam Serg and Preston Drabble as Sasha’s brothers, and Amy Zimmer as Adult Sasha.[4]
The film was acquired for commercial distribution in the United States by Janus Films.[8] It is scheduled to be released in Canada on April 17, 2026.[19]
Reception
Romvari has won several awards for writing and directing Blue Heron
The film currently holds a 100% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 20 critic reviews.[20] On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film holds a score of 95 of 100 based on nine critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[21]
Variety film critic Guy Lodge praised the film, calling it a "splintered, shattering memory piece."[5]
In a review for The Film Stage, Leonardo Gol wrote: "For a director whose projects have always tested the medium’s capacity to conjure and make peace with the specters of one’s past, it feels like the kind of moment Romvari’s been working towards from the start. For a brief, miraculous instant, Sasha’s catharsis is ours too."[22]
For Screen Daily, Nikki Baughan wrote that "Blue Heron blurs the line between fact and fiction in a woozy, laconic way; this is a drama in which perspectives shift, timelines merge and soft-focus sequences are layered with a documentary-style aesthetic. It’s all part of the journey of recollection and discovery for protagonist Sasha – who we see as both a young girl and an adult – and for Romvari, who is using the narrative to unpick her own memories, to get to better grips with her own formative experiences."[4]
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