Avenue of the Giants JIFF 2025
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Date Reviewed: 27/10/2025
I won’t watch this movie again. Something about becoming a parent has made me incredibly sensitive to storylines involving the relationship between child, parent and grandparent, and this one has taken the top spot for the most emotional I’ve been watching a movie. The flood of emotions was overwhelming, and it is fair to say that Avenue of the Giants will stay with me for a long time as I continue to process it.
Starting with the very familiar family narrative of keeping secrets from family members for what is thought to be their own good, makes this story all too relatable from the get-go. We get a sweet old man, sickness, trauma and happy children all in just the opening scenes, and I could already feel the waterworks under the surface. I immediately felt the weight of what was to come, and knew it was going to expose something raw.
The suffering of two individuals, separated by time, becomes the bridge that allows them to establish trust in each other and the courage to open up and let their respective stories out. We watch as an intergenerational friendship develops and brings resolution to both parties in different ways. While the present day acting fell slightly shy of fully convincing me, the narrative was gentle and beautiful, and thus easily forgiven. Stephen Lang did a wonderful job at capturing the lovable and charming yet wounded nature of Herbert Heller. The cast of the Heller family portrayed a beautiful family unit with strong bonds and loving memories, sensitively delivered in a way a young boy who idolised his father would remember and recount them.
A comment on the cinematisation: The first scene that was outside of California was set in Prague. I’d like to note that my first thought was, it’s a shame they were speaking English, instead of the native tongue with English subtitles. However, this stylistic choice was made obviously intentional when the German speakers entered speaking German with English subtitles. The differentiation made the English-speaking viewer feel the language barrier that would’ve been felt by the Czech and the intruders into their country, the Germans. Very clever.
A movie is always more powerful for me when it’s a true story, as this one was. The magnitude and depth of pain and suffering families endured during World War II is sometimes difficult to translate to a viewer, especially to later generations who are further removed from the time of the event. This is why it’s important to capture and share these stories, so they’re not lost and forgotten.
Avenue of the Giants also highlights the healing power of storytelling itself. Today, we understand the value of creating spaces where we can talk about and seek the help needed to process trauma. Many scarred by war carried their trauma silently and alone, thus suffering twice over for it.
I won’t watch this movie again because I can’t. As an empath the emotional intensity was too much for me, but that’s just a testament to how well the film was crafted.
Reviewed by Juliet Morelli