‘Silent Friend’ Review: A Mesmerizing Reflection On Humans, Plants & How We Might Communicate – Venice Film Festival

'Silent Friend' Review: A Cyclical Portrait of Plants and Human Connection Blooms Into a Blissful Trip

Consciousness, the kindly Professor Wong (Tony Leung) explains, takes many shades. As infants, we see the world as if lit by lantern, its glow spilling in every direction, our senses wide open. With age, that lantern narrows to a spotlight, fixing both our gaze and understanding. Those craving that early state can turn to psychedelics — “babies are high all the time,” Wong jokes — or, failing that, to Ildikó Enyedi’s enrapturing “Silent Friend.”…

‘Silent Friend’ Review: Ildikó Enyedi’s Utterly Enchanting New Film Speaks for the Trees

Director Ildikó Enyedi finds her poetic, peculiar voice again with 'Silent Friend,' a beguiling, wildly original ode to better living through botany.

‘Silent Friend’ Review: Poetry in a Tree’s Silence, as Tony Leung Again Proves Why He’s One of the Greats

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said that “if a lion could speak, we could not understand him.” That our references and experiences of the world are so different that even a shared language could not allow humans to commune with an animal. In Ildikó Enyedi’s “Silent Friend,” communication between plants and people lies far beyond words, but it is perhaps possible to connect with them more profoundly than we previously assumed. Her cinem…

‘Silent Friend’ Review: A Mesmerizing Reflection On Humans, Plants & How We Might Communicate – Venice Film Festival

Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend is a movie about science, but it is told as poetry.