Synopsis : Shot on lush 16mm and attuned to the forest’s hush, this evocative film tenderly traces the life of Cao Thi Hau, a Ruc woman, and a homeopath, farmer and great-grandmother. Alone in the mountains, where she communes with the soil and tends to her grandchildren, Cao navigates memory and daily life, passing on her disappearing language to her grandchildren. Guided by Truong and Graux’s poetic precision, the film gently dissolves the boundary between fiction and documentary.
Festival History : Locarno Film Festival 2025, Busan International Film Festival 2025, BFI London Film Festival 2025
Awards : Golden Leopard - Filmmakers of the Present, Locarno Film Festival 2025
Director :
Nicolas Graux, Quý Trương Minh
Producer :
Julie Freres,
Thomas Hakim,
Julien Graff
Screenplay :
Quý Trương Minh
DOP :
Nicolas Graux
Editor :
Trương Minh Quý
Cast :
Cao Thị Hậu,
Cao Xuân Doanh,
Cao Thị Hiệu,
Cao Thị Bát
Nicolas GRAUX was born in Binche, a small town in Belgium’s former coal-mining
region. His films, blending documentary and fiction, explore sociopolitical realities
through immersive research and a poetic, sensitive gaze. He graduated from IAD (Institut
des Arts de Diffusion) and co-founded the production company Replica in 2012. His
debut feature, “Century of Smoke” (2019), a portrait of a Laotian family struggling with
opium addiction, premiered at Visions du Réel and screened at international festivals
such as São Paulo, Munich, and Cartagena. Since 2020, he has collaborated across
borders and forms with Vietnamese filmmaker Trương Minh Quý. He is currently
developing his first fiction feature.
TRƯƠNG Minh Quý was born in Buon Ma Thuot, a small city in the
Central Highlands of Vietnam. His narratives and images, located between documentary
and fiction, personal and impersonal, draw on the landscape of his homeland, childhood
memories, and the history of Vietnam. He graduated from Le Fresnoy - National Studio
of Contemporary Arts (France) in 2021. His films have been selected for international
film festivals and exhibitions such as Cannes, Berlinale, Locarno International Film
Festival, New York Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, IFFR, Busan
International Film Festival and Les Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin. He won the
main Art Prize at the 20th VideoBrasil (São Paulo) in 2017. His last film, “Việt and Nam’
(2024), was selected in Cannes Official Selection - Un Certain Regard.