The Blue Heron

“A work that is deeply personal, partly autobiographical, and filled with raw pain, which is at the same time intellectually brave and staggeringly beautiful.”
The film magazine Ekko gives the film 'The Blue Heron', which here gets its Danish cinema premiere, five stars and nice words along the way.

The film follows eight-year-old Sasha, whose family moves to Vancouver Island to begin a new life. However, the family's everyday life changes as her older brother Jeremy begins to exhibit increasingly violent and unpredictable behaviour. Seen through Sasha's gaze, the film tells of being a child in a family characterized by psychological vulnerability, powerlessness and unresolved conflicts.

In 'The Blue Heron', director Sophy Romvari lets the boundaries between memory, fiction and reality flow together. Inspired by her own family, the film portrays with great sensitivity how a family's love for a child can coexist with exhaustion, fear and a lack of action.

The film moves between the family history of the 1990s and an adult Sasha who, many years later, tries to understand what happened -- and whether anything could have been done differently.

'The Blue Heron' has won awards at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Locarno festival. A silent, heartbreaking film about caring, failure and the traces that mental vulnerability leaves in a family.

Directed by: Sophy Romvari
Starring: Eylul Guven, Edik Beddoes
Country/year: United States, 2025
Running time: 91 min.
Formato: DCP
Language: English Dialogue
Age limit: Allowed for children over 15

Part of the series: Don't Fear the Weird 2026
Cinematek is again this year at the centre of the Don't Fear the Weird festival, where films, conversations and community come together. Throughout the festival days, we invite the audience inside for a series of film experiences that explore psychological vulnerability, community, identity and being human in different ways.