In the trailer for Sophy Romvari’s directorial debut, Blue Heron, everyone’s talking about Jeremy. The disturbed eldest child of a family who just moved to Vancouver Island, his erratic behavior has become neighborhood gossip and a household sore spot. But Blue Heron doesn’t position its familial drama from a high vantage, rather it looks up at the problem from the perspective of eight-year-old Sasha.
Here’s the synopsis:
In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island, but their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behavior from the eldest son, Jeremy. At wit’s end, their parents are presented with a shattering choice. Award-winning director Sophy Romvari’s feature debut is a lyrical and profound testament to the things we carry with us, masterfully chronicling the haze of a languid summer and the hyaline clarity of the moments that defined it.
With her first film, the Canadian filmmaker started making waves during festival season last year, premiering at Blue Heron at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland before landing the Centerpiece program at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her 2020 short film Still Processing, which served as her MFA Film at York University, premiered at TIFF and later found a home on the Criterion Channel.
Released by Janus Films, Blue Heron hits theaters on April 17.