An ancient tree stands in the middle of a botanical garden. It is lonely, as are the other inhabitants of the garden – thousands of kilometers from their original habitats, brought here for us to admire and observe. Just as we watch them, they watch us too. They bear witness to our brief, tangled, noisy, and restless lives. The film tells three stories, each capturing a tentative encounter between humans and plants, moments when these two radically different forms of perception briefly connect. Our human protagonists, like the garden’s plants, are outsiders, solitary souls – and they long for connection just as much as the plants do.
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Silent Friend, the new film by Ildikó Enyedi, the Golden Bear-winning and Oscar-nominated director of On Body and Soul, draws a sensitive and philosophical parallel between the relationships of plants and humans. Selected for the Main Competition at the Venice International Film Festival, the film is an emotional journey through time, seasoned with touches of humor.

Venice Film Festival 2025 - FIPRESCI Prize, Marcello Mastroianni Prize

Ildikó Enyedi was born in Budapest and studied film directing at the Budapest University of Theatre and Film. Her feature debut, Az én XX. századom (1989), received critical acclaim, followed by Simon mágus (1999). She gained international recognition with On Body and Soul (2017), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature. Her later works include The Story of My Wife (2021) and the upcoming Silent Friend (2025), further establishing her reputation for lyrical storytelling and philosophical explorations of human relationships.

My Twentieth Century (1989)
Simon, the Magician (1999)
On Body and Soul  (2017)
The Story of my Wife (2021)

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Director: Ildikó Enyedi
Cast:  Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm, Léa Seydoux
Cinematography: Gergely Pálos
Screenwriter: Ildikó Enyedi
Producer: Reinhard Brundig, Mónika Mécs
Editor: Károly Szalai
Music: Gábor Keresztes, Kristóf Kelemen
Hungarian Distributor: Mozinet
Colour: colour and black and white
Run Time: 147 mins

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