Venice award winner ‘Silent Friend’ finds North American home

1-2 Special has acquired all North American rights to Ildikó Enyedi’s Venice award winner Silent Friend starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Léa Seydoux.

• ‘Silent Friend’ review 

Newcomer Luna Wedler and Enzo Brumm round out the cast on the story of several generations of people who are profoundly affected by a ginkgo tree in a botanical garden in a medieval university town in Germany.

1-2 Special negotiated the deal with Films Boutique on behalf of the filmmakers and plans a 2026 theatrical release. Silent Friend film received its North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival after winning six prizes in Venice including Fipresci Critics Prize, Marcello Mastroianni Award for best new talent for Wedler, and the Interfilm Award for promoting interreligious dialogue.

Enyedi’s credits include 1989 Cannes Camero d’Or winner My Twentieth Century and her On Body And Soul won the 2017 Berlinale Golden Bear and earned an Oscar nomination as Hungary’s submission.

Enyedi called 1-2 Special “bold people who believe in cinema and in the genuine curiosity of audiences”. She added: “I hope that the moviegoers over there will embrace what Silent Friend offers: tenderness, humour, a bit more than two hours in an altered state which does not intend to deny the bitter tensions of today but rather hopes to remind you that there is something else, as important, that we could rely on.”

Reinhard Brundig produced for Pandora Film with Monika Mécs for Inforg-M&M Film, and Nicolas Elghozi and Morgane Olivier for Galatée Films, in co-production with Rediance (Meng Xie), ZDF/Arte, Arte France Cinémar, and in association with Allons Voir.

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