Movies

Directed by Hungarian visionary Ildikó Enyedi, Silent Friend is one of the most ambitious European films of 2025. This meditative masterpiece sees the director continuing her exploration of the boundaries between dreams, nature, and human consciousness.

The film is structured as a triptych and unfolds across three distinct periods: 1908, 1972, and 2020. These stories are connected by a single tree: an enormous, ancient Ginkgo biloba that grows in the Botanical Garden in Marburg. The tree is not just a backdrop, but a protagonist that 'witnesses' human dramas, from the story of a young botanist at the beginning of the 20^(th) century, to the student unrest of the 1970s, to the tale of a present-day scientist. The film explores the subjective nature of time and the profound, silent connection between the plant world and human destiny. Ultimately, it asks: What does a tree 'think' of us? In doing so, it probes the limits of anthropocentrism.

Enyedi spent years working on the film, carefully selecting locations and actors from a range of cultural backgrounds. The casting of legendary Hong Kong star Tony Leung, best known for his roles in Wong Kar-wai's films, attracted enormous attention from the international media as it is one of his rare appearances in a European production.

Enyedi rose to prominence with On Body and Soul, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. She is renowned for her poetic style, combining magical realism with profound psychological insight. In this film, she takes this a step further by seeking to 'decentre' humanity and portray the world from the perspective of the natural world that surrounds and outlives us.