Trương Minh Quý and Nicolas Graux’s documentary HAIR, PAPER, water… is a proper art house movie, which means that I am really pleased that it exists and has an audience, and I am sure there people out there who will adore it, but that it’s a bit too left-field for my taste. The film focuses on a real-life great-grandma who lives in thickly-forested rural Vietnam with her extended family, speaking a vanishing dialect and practising homeopathic medicine. It’s rather lovely derping around with her and seeing a world we would not normally have access to - her reactions to seeing people living in high-rises is particularly acute. But the fun all turns sour when we see her recommend breathing in botanically scented steam as a cure for Covid, or her great-grandson lament that without learning to read and getting an education he will be trapped. Despite its short running time, the film tried my patience. I think the directors are making a point with their 16mil lending, trying to create a feeling of intimacy and organic filming? But I really would have enjoyed luxuriating more in the visuals and less of the ancient wisdom that is hard to swallow in these RFK Jr infected time. Your mileage may vary on that score, admittedly.
HAIR, PAPER, WATER… has a running time of 71 minutes. It played Busan and London 2025, where it is has been selected for the Official Competition.
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