Silent Friend (LUXFILMFEST)

Ildikó ENYEDI, 147 min, 2025 - Deutschland, Frankreich, Ungarn
Standing in a botanical garden, a hundred-year-old gingko tree shares its memories spanning more than a century, pausing in 1908, 1972 and 2020. Grete tries to find her place in a world that tries to make her invisible. Decades later, Hannes discovers love at the same time as botany. During a pandemic, Tony converses with the same tree in a very intimate language. Around it, people cross paths, search for each other, and transform. The gingko tree, immutable, connects the ages and reminds us of the fragile alliance between humans, science and the living. By adopting the perspective of a centenarian tree, and thus completely shifting its focus, Ildikó Enyedi’s new film offers a delightful sensory immersion into three distinct eras, in which humans’ relationship with nature resonates with feminist, environmental and deeply intimate concerns...