Sloan Science on Screen Award: Silent Friend
An ancient ginkgo tree enchants longing souls across more than a century in this spellbinding cinematic triptych starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Léa Seydoux.
Description
On the cusp of the Covid-19 pandemic, Tony (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), a Hong Kong neuroscientist conducting research at a German university, observes a botanical garden’s ancient gingko tree one lonesome and chilly evening. The mysterious arboreal entity enchants him, leading him to a synthesis between scientific pursuit and the beauty of nature. Tony is not the first to feel the pull of that tree, the quiet and enduring witness to the passage of time and ultimately a leafy companion to people whose connection to the environment is inseparable. Ildikó Enyedi’s ethereal cinematic triumph captures the essence of humanity across more than a century, a triptych of stories that take place in 1908, 1972, and 2020. With a mesmerizing array of cinematographic styles, Silent Friend creates an evocative portrait of the evolution of intellectual thought and irrepressible curiosities. Léa Seydoux costars. —Jordan Klein
Biographies
Ildikó Enyedi hails from Budapest, Hungary. She won the Cannes Film Festival’s Camera d’Or for her first feature, My Twentieth Century (Festival 1990). Among her films are Simon, the Magician (1999); On Body and Soul (2017), winner of the Berlinale’s Golden Bear and a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® nominee; and The Story of My Wife (2021). She was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit in 2022.
