A giant ginkgo tree, a century of longing and Ildikó Enyedi behind the camera is already a strong pitch. This one looks like the kind of film that asks you to lean in, slow down and let its strange beauty do the work.
Film details
- Premiere date: 23 April 2026 at KINO Rotterdam; LantarenVenster also has an Expat Cinema opening night screening on 23 April 2026.
- Director: Ildikó Enyedi
- Runtime: 148 minutes
- Language and subtitles: German and English spoken, Dutch subtitles
- Age rating: AL
- Theatres: KINO Rotterdam, LantarenVenster
- Cinerama: I could not verify a current public listing there at the time of writing.
- Hooks: a centuries-old ginkgo tree, shifting time periods, botanical melancholy, tactile film textures, quiet romance, nature as witness
What’s the vibe?
This is not a grab-your-popcorn-and-switch-your-brain-off sort of release. Silent Friend looks meditative, poetic and slightly uncanny, with Enyedi using a tree as the still centre of a story that moves through 1908, 1972 and 2020. The result feels part historical drama, part emotional fable and part visual reverie.
There is also a lovely formal hook here. The film moves between black-and-white 35mm, saturated 16mm and crisp digital imagery, which gives each time period its own emotional texture. Critics’ festival coverage has framed it as a deeply felt, visually rich work with a patient rhythm rather than a crowd-pleasing rush.
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Trailer
Check out the trailer below.
Why you might like it
- Eyes: the shifting visual language sounds gorgeous, with different film formats doing more than just dressing the set.
- Heart: beneath the concept is a story about longing, connection and people trying to find their place across very different eras.
- Mind: a tree as witness to human desire, loneliness and change gives the whole film a quietly philosophical edge.
Critical reception
Festival response has been warm, with Silent Friend highlighted in critics’ coverage out of Venice and singled out by FIPRESCI writers for its emotional depth and unusual perspective. The film also screened at TIFF, where international industry coverage flagged it as a notable title in Enyedi’s return to the festival circuit.
At the moment, widely used public score aggregators do not appear to offer much settled consensus yet, so this is one of those films where the festival conversation matters more than a neat percentage. That conversation points towards a film admired for its ambition, atmosphere and tenderness, even if its patient pace may ask more from viewers than a conventional drama would.
Scene to watch for
Keep an eye on the moments where the film shifts between time periods and image formats. That seems to be where Silent Friend turns its central idea into cinema rather than mere concept, letting the ginkgo tree become something more than a symbol.
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Recommended pairing
Go for something calm and autumnal before or after the screening. Think a bowl of soup, a slice of cake, a slow walk through a park or along the water, or a long chat with someone who does not mind sitting with a film that leaves a little mystery behind.
Need-to-knows
Enyedi has form when it comes to unusual emotional storytelling. Her earlier work On Body and Soul won the Golden Bear in Berlin, so Silent Friend arrives with the kind of pedigree that makes arthouse audiences pay attention. LantarenVenster is also presenting it through its Expat Cinema strand, which is a useful cue that this is a film likely to appeal to Rotterdam’s international crowd as well as regular festival-minded cinemagoers.
Also worth noting: this is a long film at 148 minutes, so you may want to treat it as an evening’s plan rather than an in-between errand.
