‘Blue Heron’ Trailer – Sophy Romvari Crafts a Haunting Portrait of a Hungarian Immigrant Family in Canada

Blue Heron, the debut feature from filmmaker Sophy Romvari, is a deeply personal story of memory, family, and unresolved trauma.

Drawing from her own experiences, Romvari crafts a semi-autobiographical drama set in the late 1990s, following a Hungarian immigrant family adjusting to life on Vancouver Island. At the center is young Sasha, played by Eylul Guven, whose perspective quietly reveals tensions within her family, particularly her older brother’s troubling behavior. The film also stars Amy Zimmer as an older version of Sasha, alongside Ádám Tompa and Iringó Réti as her parents.

Blue Heron made its world premiere at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Swatch First Feature Award. The film continued its momentum with a North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and screenings at major events including the Vancouver International Film Festival, San Sebastián International Film Festival, and Festival du nouveau cinéma. Following its acclaimed run, the film has been acquired by Janus Films for U.S. release and is set to open in select theaters on April 17, 2026.

Set in the late 1990s, the film follows eight-year-old Sasha and her family as they 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.

Writing for Variety, critic Guy Lodge described the film as a “splintered, shattering memory piece,” praising its ability to capture how memories form and linger through both major events and small, sensory details. The interview noted, “But Sophy Romvari‘s graceful, singularly heartsore debut feature has a sharp understanding of how memories form and age: Often it’s the incidental, ambient details you recall as vividly as the more significant events at hand.”

Watch the official trailer for Blue Heron above.