The Truffle Hunters (12A)

Programme Notes

Monday 16th August 7.30pm

This thoroughly enjoyable Italian documentary follows the lives of a dwindling group of elderly men who, together with their expertly-trained dogs, search the forests of Piedmont every autumn for the elusive white Alba truffle. They’re guided by secret knowledge and training passed down through generations, but it’s a way of life that may not last much longer. White truffles can’t be cultivated, and each year the price goes up while the supply decreases, due to climate change, deforestation, and the lack of young people taking up truffle hunting. Meanwhile the high prices of the rare delicacy attract the greedy and the unscrupulous. We are gradually introduced to the men – and their dogs – as the cameras follow them and they tell their stories. Aurielo is 84 and lives alone; he is increasingly concerned about what will happen to his dog Birba when he dies. Sergio plays the drums and dotes on his dog Fiona, even blow-drying her after her bath. Carlo’s wife tries to stop her ageing husband wandering around the woods at night, so he sneaks out of the window. Ex-acrobat Angelo has become disillusioned with truffle hunting, cynical about newcomers disrupting the land and mistreating their dogs. The Truffle Hunters is written, directed and filmed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, whose previous film, The Last Race, was about stock car racing. The subject matter here is very different, but both films illustrate the film-makers’ determination to get under the skin of a declining way of life and their skilled eye for capturing human character. The film has won awards from the Directors Guild of America and the American Society of Cinematographers amongst others. It’s beautifully shot throughout, with tracking shots of the misty forests contrasted with footage from mini cameras mounted on the dogs, showing the thrill of the hunt from the dog’s perspective. It’s highlighted by a score including retro Italian pop, which adds to the note of nostalgia for a dying tradition. It’s hard not to fall for the charms of the eccentric personalities, their devotion to their traditional way of life and the bucolic settings, but in the end it’s the dogs that steal the film. Documentaries don’t come much more delightful.

REVIEWS This touching film about the truffle hunters of Piedmont offers a glimpse into a timeless, secretive way of life – and the deep companionship at its core … Dweck and Kershaw spent years earning the trust of their subjects, documenting their lives with empathy, honesty and a generous helping of melancholy humour. Through their eyes we discover an ecosystem that is ruggedly permanent yet fragile and transitory, in danger of extinction. Mark Kermode, The Observer

The aesthetic approach is distinctive and striking. Kershaw and Dweck compose gorgeous static shots, each image as perfectly lit as a Caravaggio painting, chiaroscuro shadows offering visual drama and dynamism … a film that lies at the intersection of documentary, Italian neorealism and Renaissance painting, a wholly singular visual experience inextricably tied to the film’s storytelling. Pioneer documentarian John Grierson defined documentary filmmaking as “the creative treatment of actuality,” and The Truffle Hunters is one of the finest and most unique examples of that ethos on screens this year, a cinematic delicacy as rare as the truffle itself. Katie Walsh, LA Times

The true stars of the show are the supporting canine cast, skilled hunters themselves who, like a therapist in a teen movie, give the main characters someone to open up to. They share dinner plates, birthday cakes and musings on the afterlife, each interaction treated with tenderness that it’s hard not to be moved. Its gnarled, subterranean subject may be shrouded in a biblical halo, but The Truffle Hunters’ sublime focus on the natural world and both its flora and fauna inhabitants offers calming reassurance for the unwashed. Treading through it, digging at it, hiding under it, we’re reminded that hallowed ground is just under our feet … Rich in detail and tantalisingly crafted. Jake Cunningham, Little White Lies

Crew

Directors Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw Writers Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw Producers Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw Cinematography Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw Film editing Charlotte Munch Bengtsen Music Ed Côrtes

Film Facts

Northern Italy is the world’s prime location for hunting and foraging truffles, which grow only a few months each year. Truffles are tubers that grow a few inches underground. They thrive close to roots of hardwood trees like oak and chestnut. While all truffles are valuable, the white truffle from Alba (a particular species called tuber magnatum) is the rarest and most expensive – up to $4000 per kilo. Filmmakers Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw have established The Truffle Hunters Land Conservation Program to begin raising money for Piedmont-based grassroots conservation organisations founded and operated by truffle hunters. These organisations work to preserve and protect truffle forests and provide general support to the truffle-hunting community. Dweck and Kershaw say: “We’re interested in communities that are steeped in tradition, and this one was very magical. We went back, off and on, for three years; the first year was spent letting the truffle hunters and their community get to know who we were. It took two years of filming before we got to see where they found the real truffles.” 2021 seems to be the year for truffle-hunting films. Join us again on Saturday 18th September for Pig, about Nicolas Cage’s Oregon truffle hunter and his beloved foraging pig. You can go online for various debates whether dogs or pigs are better at hunting for truffles. Basically, pigs are more natural at the skill but are less trainable, not being as keen to please as dogs are, and pigs are more likely to eat their finds!

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