THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS
Italy, 2020, 84 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw.
Possibly the first question to ask most audiences is: what exactly is a truffle? And a follow-up question: have you ever eaten truffle? A great number of responses would be in the negative.
This brief documentary does not answer every question about truffles but leads the audience to northern Italy, the Piermont area, centring on Asti at the foot of the Alps. It seems that the forests in this area are a key growing ground for truffles, though they are still fairly rare, have to be sought out by experts, the truffle hunters, and the special truffle hunters, their dogs who go sniffing through the forests, digging up the soil, revealing the rare truffles.
For those of an economic/financial frame of mind, there is a line in the film which reveals that truffles sell at €4500 a kilo. There are scenes of local sales and bargaining where prices for the truffle hunters are much, much lower.
The whole film is something of a jigsaw – or, perhaps, mosaic might be a better word. In fact, the various sequences could have been placed in any order and the result be much the same.
The film opens with one of the old codgers, the veteran truffle hunters, with his dogs, climbing a forest hill. He appears throughout the film – and shows himself quite an expert drummer and percussionist. One of the other old codgers, Carlo, is 84, with a rather dominating wife who summons him into the house, to meals, and does not want him to go out during the night still in search of truffles, for fear of accidents. He climbs out the window! Then there is another eccentric old man who has given up truffles, works in mechanics, but sits at an old typewriter writing his poems. They are the main characters we get to know and to see in action, and are, absolutely, devoted to their dogs. (Definitely a film for dog lovers.)
Then we have the background of the truffle agents, some part of a family dynasty in this work, urging the old men to go out to find more, doing financial deals, talking about orders coming in from all over the world. Then there are the more official sales, experts examining the truffles for their quality, and everybody, everybody, continually sniffing the truffles. There is something of a dignified exhibition, some of the truffles rather enthroned for observation. And, the chief tester and taster having a meal of eggs and fondue, with grated truffle sprinkled over. He responds with gourmet satisfaction.
The company that made the film, also with the strong backing of the Sundance Institute and Festival, is called Beautiful Stories. Depending on one’s liking for documentaries, for exotic growth and culinary interests, for stories about old men and dedication, and a liking for dogs, this multi-award-winning film, will be a pleaser. (For those for whom truffles are dirty and ugly old funghi, perhaps not,)
