Silent Friend

To me, fewer cinematic experiences are more frustrating (perhaps infuriating) than wasting time on allegedly acclaimed arthouse films whose narratives are based on contrived, pretentious, underdeveloped material. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I’m convinced (and legitimately so) that many moviegoers eschew these releases. Indeed, nothing’s worse than this when it comes to giving the genre an often-dubious reputation in the minds of theater patrons. And that’s why I’m unable to recommend this latest offering from writer-director Ildikó Enyedi. The film tells three stories loosely (and I mean very loosely) connected to one another by a common element: the comfort and companionship afforded to the protagonists by the presence of a century-old specimen Ginkgo biloba tree in the botanical garden on the campus of Germany’s Marburg University, an institution widely known for its research facilities (talk about a compelling premise). The first, set in 1908 and shot in black and white, follows the challenging experiences of Grete (Luna Wedler) as the first woman accepted as a student, a radical notion at the time. The second, set in the turbulent on-campus times of 1972, explores the on-again/off-again flirtation/friendship between Hannes (Enzo Brumm), a farm boy who’s grown tired of tending to the constant care required by plants, and Gundula (Marlene Burow), his housemate and a botanical researcher trying to “understand” how plants respond to humans in the same way that we respond to them, a quest to essentially determine whether talking to our chlorophyll-based buddies makes any difference in their well-being and their relationship with us through documented interspecies communication practices. And the third, set during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, chronicles the experiences of visiting Chinese neurology professor Dr. Tony Wong (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) who becomes trapped on campus, virtually alone except for the presence of resident custodian Anton (Sylvester Groth), w...