SILENT FRIEND

In Silent Friend, Ildikó Enyedi weaves a story that unfolds over three different time periods, centered around a towering Ginkgo tree, located in the botanical garden of a German town, which becomes both a symbol of eternity and a silent observer of human history. In 1908, Grete is fighting for admission to the Botany School of a German University only to be faced with the insurmountable limitations imposed on her gender. In 1972, Gundula studies what plants sense, with the assistance of her anti-social classmate, in a field where science intertwines with unspoken desire. In 2020, neuroscientist Tony Wong and renowned botanist Alice Sauvage seek the unseen connections between nature and man – and perhaps, between themselves. Imbued with aesthetic excellence and the emotional sensitivity inherent in her works, Enyedi constructs a nuanced film of subtle beauty that captures the eternal and the ephemeral like the rustling of leaves. Like fleeting moments in human lives, we seem condemned to live only a small leaf of this tree which represents time, or humanity itself, our very own world.