Double Feature: Ildikó Enyedi

On body and soul / Ildikó Enyedi / 2017, Hungary / 116 min

On the outskirts of Budapest, the ageing recluse, Endre, is the reserved and saturnine manager of a small abattoir, who is used to hiding his disabled left arm along with his emotions behind a busy schedule. And then, unexpectedly, the loner's eye is caught by a shy and graceful newcomer in the office; the young Mária, the plant's cryptic and glacially beautiful quality-control inspector. Strange as it may seem, the slaughterhouse will provide the unorthodox background for a timid affair between the tender outcasts, who, even though they seem to be polar opposites, a small theft within the company's walls will prove that those two definitely share an eerie and almost spiritual bond. However, are the two dreamers, Endre and Mária, ready to embrace the catharsis of love on both body and soul?

Silent friend / Ildikó Enyedi / Hungary, 2025 / 147 min

At the heart of the botanical garden in a university town in Germany stands a majestic ginkgo tree—the ancient mother of the garden and a silent witness to three eras and three human destinies in search of freedom and a connection to the living heart of the garden. In 2020, beneath its canopy, a neuroscientist from Hong Kong begins an unexpected experiment. Half a century earlier, a young man undergoes a transformation thanks to a simple bond with a plant. And in 1908, through unassuming photographs, the university’s first female student uncovers the incredible patterns of the universe. Ildikó Enyedi, one of the most original figures in contemporary cinema, returns with a fascinating cinematic meditation. Through the mesmerizing testimony of the ginkgo tree, she leads us to the simplest of questions: what does it mean to be human and to truly belong somewhere?