Venice Winner 'Silent Friend' Explores Plants and People

A movie about talking to your houseplants might sound unusual, but it just swept Venice Film Festival with six awards and is touching hearts worldwide.

"Silent Friend" tells three tender stories set in a German garden center, where people discover unexpected connections with the green world around them. Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi, who won both a Golden Bear and an Oscar nomination for her previous work, finally made the nature film she'd been dreaming about since her teens.

"The film's central theme is essentially nature, communication and human connection," Enyedi shared at a Budapest press conference. After decades of weaving these ideas quietly into her movies, she finally put them front and center.

The story unfolds at the botanical garden in Marburg, Germany, where an ancient transplanted tree watches nearly two centuries of life pass by. Hong Kong superstar Tony Leung, best known for working with director Wong Kar-wai, plays a character simply named Tony.

His preparation process was refreshingly simple. Enyedi sent him books on neuroscience and plants, but when he asked what else he needed, she said just one thing: "Nothing, just be there." They figured everything out together on set.

The Ripple Effect spreads far beyond one festival. "Silent Friend" won Best Cinematography at Chicago's International Film Festival and earned recognition at festivals in Lisbon and Valladolid, Spain. The German-French-Hungarian co-production shows how stories about our relationship with nature resonate across cultures and continents.

What makes this film special is how it treats plants not as background scenery but as active participants in our lives. The philosophical yet accessible approach turns everyday garden moments into something profound without getting preachy.

Enyedi's sensitive direction and Leung's natural performance create space for audiences to reflect on their own connections to the living world around them. In a time when many of us feel disconnected from nature, this film offers a gentle reminder that we're all part of the same ecosystem.

Sometimes the most powerful conversations happen without words at all.