Blue Heron<\/em> is the new film from the Canadian filmmaker Sophy Romvari, a story about her own family. In the 90s, her parents, Hungarian immigrants, moved to Vancouver Island. There, her oldest brother, a half-brother from her mother\u2019s previous relationship, shows serious signs of anti-social behavior\u2013shoplifting, wandering off without telling anyone, walking on the roof of the house, punching his hand through the window\u2013and their parents just have no idea what to do. They try to get help. But there\u2019s no real help to be had. Finally, they receive a recommendation to put him into foster care and they do. <\/p>\nThis is a pretty intense family story to tell in a film and Romvari does it in a real unusual way. The story itself is the first half or a bit more of the film. It\u2019s filmed very much as a little girl would remember it\u2013she\u2019s 8 at the time. So the story focuses on some seemingly random events over a summer because random events from the past is what we remember of our childhoods of that age. I love that she didn\u2019t over dramatize anything. He\u2019s not threatening to shoot anyone (though the parents talk about him threatening to burn the house down with everyone inside), he doesn\u2019t seem to be a bad kid really, he\u2019s just odd and disturbed and no one knows what to do.<\/p>\n
Then the second half of the film switches to the present, where a filmmaker is making a movie about her brother. Romvari doesn\u2019t act this herself\u2013Amy Zimmer is great if a bit not Hungarian looking unlike the child Romvari who is played by Eylul Guven. But that section starts by her presenting the case to a bunch of psychologists to ask if the treatment would be different today. The answer is\u2026.maybe but probably not really. What do you do with someone disturbed like this? What do parents do? It\u2019s traumatic, devastating, but they have three smaller children to protect too. <\/p>\n
Then the end of the movie has the director character go visit her parents and it is back in the past and she is playing a social worker asking questions of her parents. That scene has been described as \u201csurrealism\u201d but that\u2019s not really quite accurate, it is more an imagined scene of a daughter wondering what her parents were thinking but not really having any answers. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s no happy ending here\u2013it\u2019s not clear what happens to the brother in the future, but he\u2019s in and out of the system and they lose him eventually, though to what I don\u2019t know. You\u2019d think the film would be really sad\u2013and it is\u2013but that\u2019s not really the point. It\u2019s just a very smart small but actually huge film about the complexities of family, childhood, and loss. Very highly recommended, streaming on Criterion. <\/p>\n
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