Press confernce in Venice: actor Enzo Brumm alongside Luna Wedler and Ildiko Enyedi

She is the most important Hungarian director. He is one of the biggest stars of the Asian cinema. And she is a Swiss shooting star who got awarded for her performance at Venice International Film Festival.

Ildiko Enyedi and Tony Leung Chiu-wai have jointed forces in the film "Silent Friend", presented as part of the main competition here at Venice Film Festival. He is a big Asian star also known from American productions such as the Marvel film "Shang-Chi." Leung is now starring in a European film for the first time, alongside French Bond girl Léa Seydoux and Swiss actress Luna Wedler. Wedler who was already nominated for the German Film Award received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actress at the Venice Film Festival for her performance in "Silent Friend".

A Tree as a Silent Witness

The film centers on an exotic tree in the Botanical Garden of Philipps University. In this episodic film, the ginkgo tree serves as a kind of silent witness to various historical strands, beginning in the early 20th century and continuing into the 2020s during the coronavirus pandemic

The international co-production "Silent Friend" was filmed largely in Marburg in 2024, including in the university library and the Old Botanical Garden.

The award-winning Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi, who also wrote the screenplay, explained during filming in Marburg that she wanted to primarily address the relationship between humanity and nature in the film.

The director explained that she has a long-standing personal connection with Marburg. Her husband studied German here in the 1970s, and she has been there frequently since then