Interview during the 82nd edition of Venice International Film Festival with Ildikó Enyedi, director of the film “Silent friend”, and actors Luna Wedler and Enzo Brumm. The production, part of the official selection in Venice Film Festival 2025, talks about our connection with nature and between each other, and is divided in three different timelines.
Those periods are: the early 20th century, the 1960s-70s, and the pandemic 2020. Each timeline reflects distinct artistic choices that mirror the changing human perception across eras. The early 1900s segment utilizes black-and-white film, emphasizing the rigid structure of life during that period; the 1960s-70s section bursts with color and experimental visuals, capturing the sensuality and revolutionary spirit of the flower power era; the modern segment, set amidst the isolation of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, employs digital visuals with sharp precision.
Ildikó Enyedi emphasizes that the use of different formats and styles serves to express the evolving perceptions of reality rather than just depicting historical periods. “The visual choices are a way of showing how human perception shifts over time,” the director explains. “From rigid structures to sensory experimentation, to digital clarity, each era has its language.”
Plot
In the heart of a botanical garden in a medieval university town in Germany stands a majestic ginkgo tree. This silent witness has observed over a century the quiet rhythms of transformation across three human lives. 2020, a neuroscientist from Hong Kong, exploring the mind of babies, begins an unexpected experiment with the old tree. 1972, a young student is profoundly changed by the simple act of observing and connecting with a geranium. 1908, the university’s first female student discovers, through the lens of photography, sacred patterns of the universe hidden within the humblest of plants. We follow their clumsy, awkward attempts to connect — each one of them deeply rooted in their own present — as they are transformed by the quiet, enduring, and mysterious power of nature. The ancient ginkgo tree brings us closer to what it means to be human — to our longing to belong.
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