Hair, Paper, Water...
Tóc, Giấy và Nước...- BELGIUM, FRANCE / 2025 / Ruc, Vietnamese / Color / DCP / 71 min
Directors: Nicolas Graux, Trương Minh Quý
Photography: Nicolas Graux
Editing: Trương Minh Quý
Sound: Ngô Quốc Kiên, Nguyễn Ngọc Tân, Lê Hoàng Anh
Sound Editing, Sound Design: Ernst Karel, Trương Minh Quý
Producers: Julie Freres, Thomas Hakim, Julien Graff
Appearances: Cao Thị Hậu, Cao Xuân Doanh, Cao Thị Hiệu, Cao Thị Bát
Production Company: Dérives, petit chaos
Source: Lights On www.lightsonfilm.com
A woman of the Ruc ethnic minority, born and raised in a remote cave in Vietnam, travels to Saigon to help her daughter who has given birth. In the tumult of the city, which she is experiencing for the first time, she passes on the language of her culture to her young grandchildren. She has known times of poverty, selling hair to make a living, lived in fear of tigers and floods in the cave, and has seen her late mother appearing to her in dreams. Her memories, recounted in the disappearing Ruc language, take on a mysterious, fable-like quality. The resonant tones of the words shared between grandmother and grandchildren meld with the grain of the film, leaving behind a gentle afterglow. The life and language being passed down are etched into warm images. (SA)
[Director’s Statement] Water trickles in dark caves, drop by drop. Drops of memory handed from Mrs. Hậu to her grandchildren, word by word. Frame by frame, water carries them, carries us, carries the film—homeward.
Nicolas GrauxBorn in Binche, a small town in Belgium’s former coal-mining region. His debut feature, Century of Smoke (2019), a portrait of a Laotian family struggling with opium addiction, premiered at Visions du Réel – International Film Festival Nyon.
Trương Minh QuýBorn in Buon Ma Thuot, a small city in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Graduated from Le Fresnoy - the National Studio for Contemporary Arts (France) in 2021. His films have been selected for Cannes, Berlinale, Locarno, the New York Film Festival and others. His latest film, Việt and Nam (2024), was selected for Un Certain Regard at Cannes.