Ildikó Enyedi, who visited Sodankylä in 2022, returns to the northern silver screen with a modern masterpiece spanning a century. Three-story weave moves from the early 20th century to the first months of the Covid-pandemic, the events center on the silent witness of the century’s changes, an ancient ginkgo tree in the botanical garden of the University of Marburg.
In his first English-speaking role, Tony Leung plays a neuroscientist who gets stuck on campus during the pandemic. The attempt to measure the ginkgo tree’s electromagnetic signals under the remote guidance of a French botanist gradually unfolds into a magnificent reflection on perception itself. In 1908, Grete becomes the university’s first female botany student. She does not let the professors’ obvious chauvinism divert her from her path to her true calling. Nearly 70 years later, sensitive Hannes drifts into an unusual symbiosis with a geranium.
Alternating between silver-toned black and white images, warm-toned analog film, and digital cinematography, the narrative focuses on the rhythms of time in all its forms. Enyedi reflects how consciousness itself is historically situated, subtly mapping the reshaping of human thought and connections over time.
ILDIKÓ ENYEDI (b. 1955) studied at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, as the only woman in her class, and many years later she taught there for a long time. The theme of her debut film My 20th Century (1989) – the major inventions of the early 20th century – is not surprising, since Enyedi originally studied mathematics and physics. On Body and Soul (2017), which won the Golden Bear in Berlin, was preceded by a long hiatus, a ‘financing hell’. During those years, Enyedi directed 39 episodes of HBO’s Hungarian version of the series In Therapy. Silent Friend (2025), which was awarded at the Venice Film Festival, was preceded by her first English-language directing, The Story of My Wife (2021).
Milja Mikkola