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Festival Jean Rouch 2026: "Hair, Paper, Water..." wins the Prix Mondes en regards
The festival runs until May 30 at the Musée de l'Homme and the Reflet Médicis cinema, pending the Regards comparés selection next November at Inalco.
Prix Mondes en regards 2026
The Inalco jury has decided to award the Prix Mondes en regards to the film Hair, Paper, Water... by Trương Minh Quý (Vietnam) and Nicolas Graux (Belgium).
This film deeply touched the Inalco jury with its visual and emotional delicacy. The choice of analog camera gives the images a poetic texture that accompanies the narrative. Through the landscape, the film sensitively explores the fragile relationship between human beings and nature, as well as family ties and intergenerational transmission through language. A work of great poetry and particular intimacy, it presents the journey of Mrs Hau and the world around her, showing her relationship with her grandson and her bond with nature. Her knowledge of plants and her attachment to traditions invite us to take a different look at what connects living beings, while making a mosaic of the Vietnamese landscape.
Hair, Paper, Water... tells not only the story of a woman and a community, but also, in filigree, that of a language - the rục language, entirely oral, now on the verge of extinction. Representing Inalco, the members of the jury salute the sensitivity with which the question of language is tackled in this film. The archiving of the rục language could subsequently help researchers working on endangered languages.
The film will be screened at Inalco in the first half of 2026-2027.
Synopsis
Cao Thi Hau was born in a cave more than 60 years ago. Now she lives in a village, with many children and grandchildren to look after. Sometimes, she dreams of her dead mother calling her home – to the cave.
About the directors
Trương Minh Quý was born in Buôn Ma Thuột, a town in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. His cinema, somewhere between fiction and documentary, personal and collective, draws on the landscapes of his native region, childhood memories and Vietnamese history. A graduate of Le Fresnoy, he was awarded the Artistic Grand Prize at the 20th edition of VideoBrasil (São Paulo) in 2017. His latest film, Việt and Nam (2024), was selected for Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.
Nicolas Graux grew up in Binche, a small town in Belgium's former mining basin. His work, somewhere between documentary and fiction, focuses on lives on the margins and everyday gestures, with a patient, poetic eye. A graduate of IAD (Institut des Arts de Diffusion), in 2019 he directed Century of Smoke, a portrait of a Laotian community addicted to opium. Since 2020, he has been collaborating, across borders and forms, with Vietnamese filmmaker Trương Minh Quý.
Special mention
The Inalco jury wished to award a special mention to the film The Fox and the Moon by Mehrdad Oskouei (Iran) and Soraya Akhalaghi (Afghanistan).
With a blend of telephone footage, drawings and animation, the film presents the journey of Soraya, a young Afghan woman confronted with violence, exile and waiting. At the heart of this difficult reality emerges an exceptional creative force. Through her art, Soraya transforms her fears, wounds and hopes into a deeply striking language.
The members of the jury also wish to highlight the contemporary aesthetic of this documentary, which they particularly appreciated. Thus, with this special mention, the jury wishes to encourage other directors to follow this approach in the future.
Inalco 2026 jury members
- Ada Lipman
Ada Lipman studied Hindi at Inalco, culminating in a Doctor of Arts thesis defended in December 2025. Her thesis focused on the representation of the Mughal emperor Akbar in contemporary Indian fiction (cinema, comics, theater, literature). She has taken part in several conferences and published articles, notably on Hindi cinema, comparative literature and historical fiction. She teaches the "Cinemas of South Asia and Tibet" course at Inalco and gives Hindi courses at the Centre de Formation Linguistique of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. - Célia Abram
A third-year LLCER Korean and International Trade student at Inalco, she has been passionate about art for several years now. With a keen interest in cinema, she aspires to work in film distribution in the future, to promote cinematographic works from all horizons. - Ali Atakay
Ali Atakay is planning referent and timetable manager at Inalco. He is responsible for planning teaching, managing schedules and monitoring the organization of the school's activities. He holds a master's degree in gender studies from Paris VIII and studied political studies at EHESS. In parallel with his duties, he is developing an artistic practice around collage.