Blue Heron      Director: Sophy Romvari Cert: NoneGenre: DramaStarring: Eylul Guven, Amy Zimmer, Ádám Tompa, Iringó Réti Running Time: 1 hr 31 minsSophy Romvari’s debut feature is a twisty, semi-autobiographical drama about memory, family and loss, centred on a Hungarian immigrant family who relocate to Vancouver Island, in Canada, in the late 1990s.It belongs to the same ingenuous tradition of cinematic autofiction that gave us Janet Planet and Tarnation. Unfolding largely through the perspective of eight-year-old Sasha (Eylul Guven), a surrogate for the writer-director, the film recalls a childhood shaped by the increasingly troubling behaviour of her older half-brother, Jeremy (Edik Beddoes). It starts with oddball behaviour, such as sitting on the roof, then quickly spirals.Social workers intervene. His parents are baffled. “He’s troubled, but he’s not crazy,” his mother says. “Crazy means something else.” The narrator uses the phrase “yet memories are all I have now” of her brother’s increasingly unhinged behaviours. But even in the thick of family life he’s an absent figure, disappearing during seaside outings and alarming others with actions that remain resistant to diagnosis or explanation. Romvari avoids easy answers.Sasha observes both his volatility and his moments of brotherly tenderness, while her exasperated mother (Iringó Réti) and stepfather (Ádám Tompa) attempt to navigate a system offering limited support.Dreamily shot by the cinematographer Maya Bankovic, Blue Heron recreates the textures of childhood memory through naturalistic rhythms, inquisitive camera movements and a vivid sense of place. Domestic routines, overheard conversations and small rituals coalesce into a portrait of a family under pressure. Péter Benjámin Lukács’s ghostly sound design underlines the alienated understanding of a child witnessing events beyond her grasp.Midway through, the film shifts to the present day, with a nod to the Abbas Kiarostami film Certified Copy. Sasha, now an adult film-maker played by Amy Zimmer, returns to her past in an artistic endeavour to understand Jeremy’s story. Romvari folds documentary elements into the narrative, incorporating interviews and records that complicate memory with factual testimony. Past and present intersect as the film unpicks the relationship between recollection, representation and grief.Running just over 90 minutes, Blue Heron juggles painful memoir and self-reflexive film-making with remarkable assurance. Anchored by strong performances, particularly from Réti and Beddoes, it is a surgically precise and poignant exploration of how families mythologise and editorialise the pain away.In cinemas from Friday, June 26th