Silent Friend
A ginkgo tree in a botanical garden watches as lonely souls (including Tony Leung) across three different time periods find connections with the world around them and the people in it.
In the year 2020, a doctor of neurology (veteran of solitude films, the beloved Tony Leung Chiu-wai) visiting a German university gets stuck on the deserted campus as the Covid-19 pandemic shuts down the whole world. In the year 1908, the first female student at the same university seeks her place in a hostile environment. In the 1970s, a reclusive young man falls in love in the centre of the turbulent student movement. These lonely souls in three different eras find their connection with the surrounding world and its people by first connecting with plants.
Anchoring these stories together is the maidenhair tree (Gingko biloba) growing in the university’s botanical gardens. Writer and director Ildikó Enyedi’s understated magical realism has collected awards at Europe’s film festivals, including the Golden Bear for her film On Body and Soul (R&A 2017). In her latest film, Enyedi examines the questions of consciousness, communication and connection, this time through botany. Carnally charged close-ups of flower pistils and cell movements alternate with angles laden with empty space, giving the loneliness of the characters an undertone simmering with hope.
Adrian Murtomäki (translated by Ailiina Saaristo)
Screenings
-
Kinopalatsi 2Sat 19.9. at 12.45–15.12147 min, 1/3
-
Savoy-teatteriWed 23.9. at 17.45–20.12147 min, 2/3
-
Kinopalatsi 1Sat 26.9. at 15.45–18.12147 min, 3/3
Trailer
