Silent Friend (Stille Freundin)

In the garden of Philipps University in Marburg stands a centuries-old ginkgo tree. As a silent witness he guards the different generations of passers-by. In 1908 Grete, the first female student at the university, turned her camera toward its majestic trunk. In 1972 a freshman in love tended a geranium beneath its branches. In 2020 a lonely neuroscientist from Hong Kong researches the possibilities of communication between humans and nature during the pandemic years. Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi has created a profound scientific epic. In ‘Silent Friend’, she interweaves the various stories like roots in the earth. The film, starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai (‘In the Mood for Love’) and Léa Seydoux (‘La vie d'Adèle’), premiered at the Venice Film Festival.