Debrecen4U February 18, 2026

Oscar Nominee Director Visits Apolló Cinema

At Monday’s screening of Silent Friend, the audience got to meet Golden Bear winner and Oscar nominee director Ildikó Enyedi at Apolló Cinema.

Although tickets for the event sold out almost instantly, there were still persistent viewers hoping that some people might not stay for the 9:30 p.m. discussion and that they could get into the cinema’s main hall. However, the audience in Debrecen proved steadfast, and after the full-house screening, the day concluded with a full-house discussion at the Apollo.

Both the film and its director captivated the audience. Speaking kindly and without affectation, she talked about her work and the creative process. We learned that although she knows a great deal about the secrets of the plant world and plant communication, she does not garden in her everyday life—her home is a fourth-floor apartment. It is not unusual for her to work with international crews; since her first film, My 20th Century, she has essentially felt at home in that environment. The male lead of Silent Friend is Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, who received a lifetime achievement award at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. Appearing alongside him on screen are Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm, Léa Seydoux, Johannes Hegemann, Sylvester Groth, Rainer Bock, and Martin Wuttke. Some of them had also acted in Enyedi’s previous film, The Story of My Wife, and were happy to work again with the Hungarian director.

Silent Friend beautifully tells and weaves together three stories, centered on a massive ginkgo biloba tree, which adapts well to its environment and will surely outlive us all. As we saw in the film, the year 1832 appeared on the tree featured as a central character. As Enyedi explained, she has known the botanical garden in Germany for more than three decades, and in the film we can see three ginkgo biloba trees, as Silent Friend evokes three different eras: some scenes take place in 1908, another thread transports us to the 1970s, and the third brings us roughly to the present—more precisely, to Covid-19 times, which served as a serious warning to humanity.

Silent Friend is a feature film with a unique atmosphere about encounters and relationships, about the connection between human and human, and human and nature. It is a work that cannot be fully appreciated in a single viewing. The audience in Debrecen was deeply moved; several viewers expressed their gratitude for the experience the film provided.

As was announced during the discussion—almost as a public notice—Silent Friend will remain on screen at the Apollo Cinema for some time. In March, according to plans, there will also be a special screening followed by a walk, during which participants can become more closely acquainted with some of the city’s remarkable plants.

Source: dehir.hu | Photo credit: Apolló Cinema