Hair, Paper, Water…
Nicolas Graux & Quý Trương Minh / Belgium, France & Vietnam / 2025 / 71 min
With great patience, an elderly Vietnamese woman tries to pass on her wisdom to her grandchildren. A tactile film shot with an old Bolex camera about the power of language and cultural heritage.
Cao Thị Hậu was born in a cave more than half a century ago. She belongs to the Rục tribe, an ethnic minority in rural Vietnam, who lived isolated from the outside world until 1959, when the government moved them to villages. Today, the elderly woman lives with her children and grandchildren. Word by word, she tries to pass on her endangered mother tongue to the next generation, while they prepare her for a world far from the cave: the big city of Saigon.
‘Hair, Paper, Water…’ consists of sensory-rich, fleeting moments from everyday life among Cao Thị Hậu and her large family. The images are grainy and analog, while the soundtrack crackles with rustling leaves, mud underfoot, and dripping water. Using an old Bolex camera, the directing duo Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý have created a tactile and ethereally beautiful film about memory, change, and a cultural heritage that will only survive if it is lived on.