A lyrical portrait of Cao Thị Hậu, who was born sixty years ago in a cave, within the small Ruc community ‒ a people on the verge of disappearance. Filmmakers Trương Minh Quý and Nicolas Graux follow her, together with her grandson, through the misty mountains of Quảng Bình in Vietnam, where the language survives in the voices of the elders. Shot on 16mm film, the work transforms memory into a visual archive of survival, flowing ‒like water‒ toward oblivion. “The language of cinema has changed”, notes Quý, “but there’s still something profoundly human within it”. Awarded the Golden Leopard, the Pardo Verde Special Mention, and the Boccalino d’Oro for Best Cinematography at the Locarno Film Festival.

Nicolas Graux, born in Binche, Belgium, creates films blending documentary and fiction to explore sociopolitical realities with poetic sensitivity. A graduate of the Institut des Arts de Diffusion (IAD), he co-founded Replica in 2012. His debut feature Century of Smoke (2019), portraying a Laotian family’s struggle with opium addiction, premiered at Visions du Réel and screened internationally in São Paulo, Munich, and Cartagena. Since 2020, he has collaborated with Vietnamese filmmaker Trương Minh Quý and is developing his first fiction feature.

Trương Minh Quý, born in Buôn Ma Thuột, Vietnam, creates films blending documentary and fiction, drawing on his homeland’s landscapes, childhood memories, and national history. A graduate of Le Fresnoy – National Studio of Contemporary Arts (France, 2021), his work has screened at Cannes, Berlinale, Locarno, New York, Clermont-Ferrand, Rotterdam, Busan, and Les Rencontres Paris/Berlin. Winner of the main Art Prize at the 20th VideoBrasil (2017), his feature Việt and Nam (2024) was selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.