In the Venice premiere “ Silent Friend ,” Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi observes people trying to communicate with plants — in 1908, 1972 and 2020, respectively. Not for the first time, though. In her 1999 drama “Simon the Magician,” a plant served as a witness in a murder investigation.

“When I was a teenager in the 1970s, everything was about ‘flower power.’ There was a big wave of experimenting with plant communication, using sensors or interfaces to understand what’s happening between plants, how they perceive the world and communicate with each other. It died down after a while, but now I can see a revival,” she explains.

“It was a really beautiful and naive time,” says Enyedi, mentioning interrogation specialist Cleve Backster who attached a plant to a polygraph. Now, one of h

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