The Truffle Hunters

After watching this film, you’ll want to drop everything and head to Italy to hunt for truffles in the mountains of Piedmont. The greatest strength of Dweck and Kershaw’s poignant documentary are the protagonists: elderly men who have been hunting the white, most valuable variety of truffles for years and, at the end of their lives, can’t imagine doing anything else. Another element that makes The Truffle Hunters memorable are the dogs that accompany the protagonists in their search for the extremely valuable fungi growing deep underground. The beautifully filmed scenes of human–canine intimacy are juxtaposed against the increasingly invasive pressure of sellers, who want to reduce the sophisticated art of truffle hunting to nothing more than capitalism, their profit value—without respecting centuries of tradition. It’s worth noting that the film’s executive producer was none other than Luca Guadagnino; The Truffle Hunters has the touching levity of his Call Me by Your Name. The film was part of the program at Sundance and many other festivals, including Cannes and Toronto.