Some of 2025’s most prestigious festival films are still trickling out into theaters. One is Silent Friend, from Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi, who teamed with Hong Kong superstar Tony Leung and Léa Seydoux. The drama, which marks Leung’s first European project, tells three interconnected stories centered on nature, and in particular, one ginko tree over a span of 100 years.
Directed and written by Enyedi, the film also stars Luna Wedler, who won the Marcello Mastroianni Award at Venice last year. Following Silent Friend‘s Venice and TIFF screenings, the film will hit theaters on May 8th from 1-2 Special. Prior to that, NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center will present a special retrospective honoring Leung’s incredible career, running from April 29 to May 7 with the actor in attendance for some screenings. Leung has worked with some of the greats, including Wong Kar Wai, John Woo, and Hou Hsiao-hsien.
SYNOPSIS: The film revolves around a majestic ginkgo tree, located in the heart of a botanical garden in a medieval university town in Germany. This silent witness has observed over a century the quiet rhythms of transformation across three lifetimes. In 2020, a neuroscientist from Hong Kong, exploring the mind of babies, begins an unexpected experiment with the old tree. In 1972, a young student is profoundly changed by the simple act of observing and connecting with a geranium. And in 1908, the university’s first female student discovers, through the lens of photography, sacred patterns of the universe hidden within the humblest of plants. Each individual is slowly transformed by the quiet, enduring, and mysterious power of nature, as the ancient ginkgo tree brings us closer to what it means to be human.
