Vietnamese cinema has long existed in the margins of Southeast Asian film culture, overshadowed by the global recognition of its regional neighbours. Yet, in recent years, a resurgence has begun to take shape, led by filmmakers whose work values poetic observation over plot. Among them, Trương Minh Quý. His latest collaboration with Belgian filmmaker Nicolas Graux, Hair, Paper, Water, is a thoughtful reflection on language and where we come from. The film had its world premiere in competition at the Locarno Film Festival‘s Filmmakers of the Present section and was recently screened at the BFI London Film Festival.

The film depicts Cao Thị Hậu, an elderly Rục woman who was born in a cave more than sixty years ago. Today, she lives in a small village, surrounded by children and grandchildren. Her world is modest and slow, yet within it lies something sincere: the fragile thread of an endangered language, the Rục tongue, passed down through everyday conversation and gentle instruction. The film, somewhat, becomes an act of preservation.

Hair, Paper, Water move with the rhythm of memory. The camera rests on textures; on hands weaving, on faces touched by soft light, on water sliding over rocks. In all honesty, there is little conventional storytelling; the film feels like a sensory experience. It is a cinema of patience, and through this, Trương and Graux create a visual language that reflects the slow fading of the spoken word.

The filmmakers’ choice to shoot on 16mm film gives the work a tactile intimacy. The grain and fragility of the image create a small world of remembrance, imperfect yet enduring. Cao Thị Hậu centers the film on lived experience. Her face, marked by time, tells of a life between the cave where she was born and the modern village around her. Moments with her grandchildren carry warmth, as their laughter and play keep the past alive.

Hair, Paper, Water is another step forward for Vietnamese cinema; a body of work steadily breaking from the shadows with a bold grace.

Written by Maggie Gogler

Featured image courtesy of BFI LFF & Lights On

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