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Nicolas Graux
Nicolas Graux (Belgium, 1988) explores sociopolitical realities through immersive research as a filmmaker. With a poetic and sensitive eye, he works at the intersection of documentary and fiction. He graduated from the Belgian IAD (Institut des Arts de Diffusion) and co-founded the production company Replica. His debut feature, Century of Smoke (2019), a portrait of a Laotian family struggling with opium addiction, premiered at Visions du Réel in Switzerland and screened at international festivals in São Paulo, Munich, and Cartagena. Since 2020, he has collaborated across borders and forms with Vietnamese filmmaker Trương Minh Quý. They co-directed Tóc, Giấy và Nước… [Hair, Paper, Water…] (2025), a sensorial and poetic documentary that premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, where it won, among other prizes, the Golden Leopard in the Filmmakers of the Present competition.
In a small village on the border of Vietnam and Laos, an elderly woman teaches her grandchildren the language and traditional knowledge of the Rục, an ethnic minority. This tactile, poetic documentary, filmed on grainy 16 mm, evokes a sense of quiet wonder.