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Truong Minh Quy And Nicolas Graux On The Story Behind Their Locarno Title ‘Hair, Paper, Water…' & How Technological Shifts Are Affecting Filmmaking: 'The Language Of Cinema Has Changed'
Vietnamese filmmaker Truong Minh Quy became an instant arthouse favorite at Cannes in 2024 with his impressive third feature Viet and Nam. Just over a year later, Quy is back with a new project, co-directed with his frequent collaborator Nicolas Graux (Century of Smoke). Hair, Paper, Water…, or Tóc, giấy và nước…, in the original Vietnamese, debuts this evening in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente Competition at Locarno. More from Deadline Locarno Open Doors: Nigerian, Zimbabwean & Ivorian Projects Among Winners Mohammad Rasoulof On Why He Isn't In A Rush To Follow Up 'The Seed Of The Sacred Fig' & His Plans To Return To Iran - Locarno Locarno Pro Awards: 'Nina Roza' By Canadian Filmmaker Geneviève Dulude-De Celles Leads Winners Shot over three years on a vintage Bolex camera, the film is a rich portrait of an elderly, unnamed woman who, born in a cave more than 60 years ago, now lives in a village caring for her children and grandchildren. The film captures her daily life and the transmission of her fragile native language, Rục, to the younger generations, as she dreams of her deceased mother calling her home to her mountain cave. The film was produced by Thomas Hakim and Julien Graff of Petit Chaos, the company behind Payal Kapadia's groundbreaking feature debut All We Imagine As Light, alongside Julie Freres. Italian-based sales company Lights On is handling the project, which has been a significant point of intrigue at Locarno. Graux and Truong previously co-directed the short Porcupine (2023), which premiered at Rotterdam and won the jury prize for best artistic contribution at Pink Screens Film Festival. Speaking to us ahead of today's premiere, the pair discusses how their professional collaboration began, why they decided to shoot Hair, Paper, Water... using a vintage Bolex camera, and how what they described as cinema's rapidly changing relationship to techonology shaped their film. 'This discussion about technology is not purely aesthetic; it's not about which film looks digital or filmic. The language of cinema has changed,' Quy explains. Read the interview below. Locarno ends on August 16. DEADLINE: How did you two meet? NICOLAS GRAUX: We met in Brussels just before COVID. Quy was studying in France. We lived together throughout the pandemic and began showing each other our previous works and exchanging ideas. I saw The Tree House, Quy's previous documentary. He made that before Viet and Nam. The main character of that film is also the main character in Hair, Paper, Water. Quy told me that during the production of The Tree House, she had once told him that if her valley gets flooded, she would go back to her cave by boat. That image stuck in our heads, and we thought it could be another film. That's how we built the idea of this movie. TRUONG MINH QUY: At the beginning of this process, we accidentally found a Bolex camera in our room under a bed. It belonged to Nicolas's friend and had been there for a few years. We'd both shot on film before, but never on a Bolex, which is very small and limited in its capabilities. It's a very vintage camera. So when we discovered that camera and the idea of the woman traveling back to her home on water, we knew we would use the Bolex. DEADLINE: Wow, did you shoot with just one Bolex? They're quite temprimental aren't they? GRAUX: We had two Bolex cameras. With a Bolex, you only have three-minute rolls. And each time you use the crank, you can shoot for about 30 seconds maximum. QUY: It's like TikTok. GRAUX: It's primitive TikTok. On one side, you have to be careful about what you shoot because you can't redo it several times. Conversely, it also frees you because you know that the camera itself is shaping the film's language. For example, during production, I was able to react to what I was seeing around me, like filming a dog sitting next to me for 15 seconds or a hibiscus flower under the rain. These moments may not have narrative functions, but they give shape to the film. DEADLINE: The Bolex can't record sound right? How did you get around that? The film has such a vivid soundscape. QUY: We worked with three different sound recordists. There is no synchronized sound on the Bolex. And it's impossible to use a clapperboard because you only have 30 seconds to shoot, so all the sound in the film was pre-created sound on a set. DEADLINE: And when did you shoot this? How long did it take? Can you talk me through the production. Was it before Viet and Nam?GRAUX: We had two main shooting periods with a two-year gap in between. That's why, in the film, you see that suddenly the boy had grown. That's not something we planned, but we came back to the village two years later because we knew we wanted to shoot more. QUY: The first shoot was just before Viet and Nam in 2022. And we finished shooting in December 2024. DEADLINE: Did you find it easier to build the production and raise funds during the second shoot because of the success?QUY: When we started financing the film, we decided, with Thomas, Julien, and the other producers, that we didn't want it to be big. We just wanted to find enough money so we can have time. And the crew in Vietnam was very small. We had four or five people. For me, it was lucky that I decided to shoot this film before Viet and Nam. If I had to start now, I don't think I would have enough energy to do During the first shoot, we knew that we would like to do something with the language, but we weren't so sure how. It became clearer during the editing process between the first and second shoot. That's when we went back and built the film around the language. The construction of the film is actually super basic. You see something on screen, and then you hear a word to describe that thing. It's like a visual dictionary. And we like that, the relationship between image and sound. I actually spoke with the main character from our film yesterday, and she had a visitor, an archivist who had come to record the language. It's great that people are also interested in archiving her Yes, this film calls back to previous cinema traditions like silent movies, family movies, and filmmakers like Jonas Mekas. We didn't intend to create a home movie. However, one thing we noticed that had changed during the three years of production is the rapid change of technology in relation to filmmaking. People have already stopped talking to each other and now talk to computers. This discussion about technology is not purely aesthetic; it's not about which film looks digital or filmic. The language of cinema has changed. I don't care if this film is good or not. This film is instead about making a project that has something to say or holds qualities that stay with you. And there's something human in that. DEADLINE: How would you like this film to be seen by audiences. I could see it in the gallery space, for instance. GRAUX: For us, it's quite clear that it's for cinema, especially because this film brings our main character back to her cave. There is darkness in the cave, and that is a feeling that you only get in cinemas when you face the big screen. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'Nobody Wants This' Season 2 So Far 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Emmys, Oscars, Grammys & More Everything We Know About Prime Video's 'Legally Blonde' Prequel Series 'Elle' Solve the daily Crossword
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Locarno: ‘Two Seasons, Two Strangers' & ‘Hair, Paper, Water…' Take Top Prizes
Tabi to Hibi, the latest feature from Japanese filmmaker Sho Miyake, has won the Pardo d'Oro, the Locarno Film Festival's main competition award. Miyake is the fourth Japanese winner of the top prize in the festival's history after Masahiro Kobayashi's The Rebirth (Ai no yokan) in 2007, Akio Jissoji's This Transient Life (Mujō), which was one of four films to share the prize in 1970, and Teinosuke Kinugasa's classic Gate of Hell (Jigokumon) in 1954. More from Deadline International Insider: Paramount's Week One; Cillian On 'Steve'; Channel 4 Chuckles Truong Minh Quy And Nicolas Graux On The Story Behind Their Locarno Title 'Hair, Paper, Water...' & How Technological Shifts Are Affecting Filmmaking: "The Language Of Cinema Has Changed" Locarno Open Doors: Nigerian, Zimbabwean & Ivorian Projects Among Winners The festival's awards were announced this afternoon. Tabi to Hibi is based on the manga Mr. Ben and His Igloo, A View of the Seaside by Yoshiharu Tsuge. The film was produced by Masayoshi Johnai. The official synopsis reads: In summer, Nagisa and Natsuo meet by the sea. Their vacant gazes reflect each other as they exchange awkward words and wade into the rain-drenched ocean. In winter, Li, a screenwriter, travels to a snow-covered village. There, she finds a guesthouse run by Benzo. Their conversations rarely connect, yet they set off on an unexpected adventure. In Locarno's parallel competition, Concorso Cineasti del Presente, Hair, Paper, Water…, a documentary co-directed by Truong Minh Quy and Nicolas Graux, won the top prize. Shot over three years on a vintage Bolex camera, the film is a rich portrait of an elderly, unnamed woman who, born in a cave more than 60 years ago, now lives in a village caring for her children and grandchildren. The film captures her daily life and the transmission of her fragile native language, Rục, to the younger generations, as she dreams of her deceased mother calling her home to her mountain cave. Hair, Paper, Water… was produced by Thomas Hakim and Julien Graff of Petit Chaos, the company behind Payal Kapadia's groundbreaking feature debut All We Imagine As Light, alongside Julie Freres. Italian-based sales company Lights On is handling the project. Elsewhere, White Snail by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, which competed in the main Competition, won the Special Jury Prize, and Abbas Fahdel won Best Director for Tales Of The Wounded Landed. Scroll down for the full list of this year's winners in Locarno. Discussing the crop of winning titles, Locarno head Giona A. Nazzaro described this year's festival as an event that celebrated 'the enduring and gentle power of cinema and its manifold ways of bringing communities together to share the wonderful gifts of peace.' 'We are grateful to all the directors who trusted the festival with their works. It allowed us to create a forward-looking edition, with its gaze firmly set in the future,' said in a statement. 'We are certain these works will stand the test of time and become beacons of hope for young talents that are just starting to dream the films they want to make tomorrow. A festival is like building a better tomorrow. One film at the time'. Full winners list: Concorso Internazionale Pardo d'Oro – Grand Prize of the Festival and City of Locarno to () by Sho Miyake, Japan Special Jury Prize – Cities of Ascona and Losone to by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, Austria/Germany Pardo for Best Direction – City and Region of Locarno to Abbas Fahdel for , Lebanon Pardo for Best Performance to Manuela Martelli and Ana Marija Veselčić for () by Hana Jušić, Croatia/Italy/Romania/Greece/France/Slovenia Pardo for Best Performance to Marya Imbro and Mikhail Senkov for by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, Austria/Germany Special Mention by Alexandre Koberidze, Germany/Georgia Concorso Cineasti del Presente Pardo d'Oro – Concorso Cineasti del Presente to () by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý, Belgium/France/Vietnam Best Emerging Director Award – City and Region of Locarno to Cecilia Kang for , Argentina/France Special Jury Prize CINÉ+ to () by Margherita Spampinato, Italy Pardo for Best Performance to Aurora Quattrocchi for () by Margherita Spampinato, Italy Pardo for Best Performance to Levan Gelbakhiani for by Jacqueline Zünd, Switzerland/Italy Pardi di Domani Concorso Corti d'Autore Pardino d'Oro WePresent by WeTransfer for the Best Auteur Short Film to by Neo Sora, Japan/China Concorso Internazionale Pardino d'Oro Arts3 Foundation for the Best International Short Film to by Altay Ulan Yang, USA Pardino d'Argento Arts3 Foundation for the International Competition to by Mohamed Mesbah, France Pardi di Domani Best Direction Award – BONALUMI Engineering to by Aria Sánchez and Marina Meira, Cuba/Spain/Brazil Medien Patent Verwaltung AG Award to by Angel WU, Taiwan Concorso Nazionale Pardino d'Oro SRG SSR for the Best Swiss Short Film to () by Felipe Casanova, Belgium/Brazil/Switzerland Pardino d'Argento SRG SSR for the National Competition to by Francesco Poloni, Switzerland Best Swiss Newcomer Award to by Camille Surdez, Switzerland Locarno Film Festival Short Film Candidate – European Film Awards () by Felipe Casanova, Belgium/Brazil/Switzerland First Feature Swatch First Feature Award to by Sophy Romvari, Canada/Hungary Pardo Verde Pardo Verde to by Ben Rivers, United Kingdom/France/Canada Special Mentions () by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý, Belgium/France/Vietnam () by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, France/Mongolia Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'Nobody Wants This' Season 2 So Far 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Emmys, Oscars, Grammys & More Everything We Know About Prime Video's 'Legally Blonde' Prequel Series 'Elle' Solve the daily Crossword
