documentary films

THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS

Michael DWECK, Gregory KERSHAW

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2020

84

minutes

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ITALIA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, GREECE

A documentary that sets out in search of the white truffle from Alba, Italy, prized by the great chefs and gleaners who sell it at astronomical prices. Without voice-overs, The Truffle Hunters tells the story of how an ancestral tradition comes face to face with contemporary business, the love between octogenarians and dogs with a sometimes uncertain sense of smell, on a stubborn and insane search – a journey through the heart of the forests of Piedmont. Presented at Sundance and produced by Luca Guadagnino.

the Selection Committee

Deep in the forests of Northern Italy resides the prized white Alba truffle. Desired by the wealthiest patrons in the world, it remains a pungent but rarified mystery. The only souls on Earth who know how to dig it up are a tiny circle of canines and their silver-haired human companions—Italian elders with walking sticks and devilish senses of humor—who only scour for the truffle at night so as not to leave any clues for others. This small enclave of hunters induces a feverish buying market that spans the globe. With a wily and absurdist flare, The Truffle Hunters captures a precarious ritual constantly threatened by greed and outside influences but still somehow protected by those clever, tight-lipped few who know how to unearth the magic within nature.

RELEASE IN USA: