Jashandeep Singh
The filming of Tony Leung Chiu-wai-starrer film ‘Silent Friend’ is scheduled to begin in April 2024. The film features “three stories connected to a tree over a period of more than 100 years in the botanical garden of Marburg, a medieval university town in Germany, and highlights the volatile nature of so-called reality, showing the radical shifts in human perception of plants, animals, and humans,” as per the synopsis. The location of the filming has not been revealed yet.
‘Silent Friend’ is written and directed by Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi. The film is said to be a follow-up to the director’s previous works, ‘On Body and Soul’ and ‘The Story of My Wife.’ The former received a nomination for Best International Feature Film at the 90th Academy Awards and went on to win accolades at Berlin Film Festival and Sydney Film Festival. Some of Enyedi’s other acclaimed works include ‘My 20th Century,’ ‘Magic Hunter,’ and ‘Simon, the Magician.’
Tony Leung Chiu-wai stars in the film in the third segment and portrays the role of a renowned Hong Kong neuroscientist who travels to the Marburg Faculty. The actor has starred in numerous hit films in his four-decade-long career and is widely recognized for his roles in ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,’ ‘A City of Sadness,’ ‘Hard Boiled,’ and ‘In the Mood for Love,’ for which he also won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000. The details about the rest of the cast have been kept under wraps for now.
Speaking about his association with Ildikó Enyedi, Tony Leung called himself an avid fan of the filmmaker’s work and described her as an intelligent, humble, and incredibly talented individual. Meanwhile, the director also spoke highly of the actor and said, “The whole storyline of his episode is defined by those personal sensibilities I could only guess behind the brilliant actor. I was absolutely humbled that from the first read of the script he became such a great partner in the thinking not just about his role but about the whole project.”
‘Silent Friend’ is produced by Reinhart Brundig (‘Only Lovers Left Alive’) at Pandora Film, a German production house. Talking about Tony Leung’s involvement in the film, the producer said, “We have been following Tony Leung’s career for a long time and we are very happy that he committed to this project.” The film is co-produced by Hungarian producer Monika Mécs (‘On Body and Soul’ and ‘The Story of My Wife’) at Inform M and M, French producer Nicolas Elghozi (‘The Wolf and the Lion’) at Galatée Films, and China-based producer Meng Xie (‘An Elephant Sitting Still’) at Rediance.
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