Venice Review: Tony Leung Discovers a Botanical Bond in Ildikó Enyedi’s Quiet Companion

      Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi is widely recognized for her film On Body and Soul, which won the Golden Bear in 2017. In this film, an unusual pair of characters encounter each other in a dream and, as deer, fall in love. This exceptionally poignant Berlinale winner can be seen as a precursor to Enyedi’s latest film, even though she released The Story of My Wife (2021), a period drama featuring an obsessive love affair with Léa Seydoux in the lead role, in between the two. This film is significant in its own right, as Enyedi's English-language debut enabled her to flesh out her unique worlds beyond linguistic barriers and established her standing as a European auteur to whom actors are drawn. While Silent Friend features the remarkable Tony Leung (with Seydoux appearing in a minor role), the true centerpiece of this film is a ginkgo tree. If On Body and Soul focused on fauna, Silent Friend centers on flora.

      Professor Tony Wong (Leung), a neuroscientist studying consciousness in infants, is introduced through his experiments that use an EEG headset to create spectral visualizations of brain data, filling the screen. Located in Marburg, Germany, he is presenting his findings to students and colleagues when the onset of COVID-19 forces him to remain on the campus grounds, near a centuries-old ginkgo biloba tree in the university's botanical gardens. Initially, the plot focuses on themes of consciousness and perception—deep and scientific questions—but when the professor remarks that “research is just a series of attempts to find metaphors,” it becomes clear that the film is not simply a peer-reviewed exploration. Silent Friend merges science and fiction, echoing the style of Kogonada's After Yang—subtly tender and deeply rooted.

      Silent Friend unfolds across three parallel timelines, with the ginkgo tree serving as a constant—the object of intrigue and a quiet witness to both private and public lives. In 1908, a black-and-white 35mm setting envelops Grete (Luna Wedler), the first female student at the university, who faces resistance but thrives through her brilliance as she dedicates herself to studying plants beyond traditional taxonomy. Grete’s analogue practices (including pivotal moments of photography) emphasize the external, aesthetics, and forms of plants—more as an act of appreciation than objectification, highlighting an often-overlooked perspective within science. Cinematographer Gergely Pálos (who has collaborated with Roy Andersson) does not rely solely on the 35mm aesthetic to capture the early 20th century mood; instead, he allows viewers to perceive Grete's wonder through her eyes (and visor) in the simplest of scenes, such as gazing at a cabbage. Upon transitioning to 1972, Pálos employs a vibrant, shimmering 16mm style to depict the post-1969 university atmosphere, where the introverted Hannes (Enzo Brumm) finds himself attracted to a girl and her geranium plant.

      In Silent Friend, the characters are humbled as they come to terms with the illusions of their supremacy. If plants observe humans as we observe them, what insights do they gain? While Enyedi does not pose this question directly, the film’s three-part narrative revisits it repeatedly. Working with Pálos, the Hungarian director seems to have developed a new cinematic language that shifts the focus away from the human experience—specifically, the extended attention to the ginkgo tree (the real protagonist) requires a fresh perspective, freed from the anthropocentric lens of traditional cinematography. What does a close-up of a tree signify? Is it a close view of the trunk, the bark, a branch, leaves, or just a single leaf? Pálos experiments with all these angles, getting the camera intimately familiar with the ginkgo’s anatomy to the point that even wide shots carry the same weight as close-ups of a human face.

      Engaging with the enchanting atmosphere of Silent Friend feels like receiving a delightful gift, even if one remains skeptical about whether plants can or wish to communicate with us. With her remarkable new film, Ildikó Enyedi has accomplished the challenging task of creating a non-humanistic yet human-centered cinema that is both inclusive and respectful, without veering into reverence (toward plants) or criticism (of humanity). Perhaps this is the direction that future ecological cinema should take: a gentle romance between different species (humans and plants, or cinema and its viewers).

      Silent Friend premiered at the 2025 Venice Film Festival.