The Truffle Hunters (2020)
Country: IT/GR/US
Technical: col 84m
Director: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
Cast: doc.
Synopsis:
A heterogeneous group of Piemontese truffle hunters and their dogs respond in differing ways to climate change, old age, and the effects of 'the market' on their traditional modus vivendi.
Review:
Proceeding in mostly fixed, objective shots of moderate duration, this subtle documentary is the opposite of the fly-on-the-wall exposé one might expect, leading the unreflective viewer to absorb the beauty and tranquility at face value and come away with one of those Buena Vista-style tributes to a long-lived but dying breed of old salts. The more observant, on the other hand, will perceive two very different classes of men ranged against one another in a fragile entente: those who are content to be with their dogs in the wild, for whom the finding of the truffle is but the natural culmination of a natural endeavour; and those who perceive it as a thing to be exploited. Hence the disingenuousness about dealing and territory, the inequity of a pricing structure in which the broker takes the greatest gain for the least work, the poisoning of dogs by competitors, and the buyer who reaps the fruits of the whole process grated over his fried eggs. Most engaging are the old men themselves, some happy to give away their truffles, others determined to die with the secret of their art, some married, most not, but all with one thing in common: the bond with their animals.
Country: IT/GR/US
Technical: col 84m
Director: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
Cast: doc.
Synopsis:
A heterogeneous group of Piemontese truffle hunters and their dogs respond in differing ways to climate change, old age, and the effects of 'the market' on their traditional modus vivendi.
Review:
Proceeding in mostly fixed, objective shots of moderate duration, this subtle documentary is the opposite of the fly-on-the-wall exposé one might expect, leading the unreflective viewer to absorb the beauty and tranquility at face value and come away with one of those Buena Vista-style tributes to a long-lived but dying breed of old salts. The more observant, on the other hand, will perceive two very different classes of men ranged against one another in a fragile entente: those who are content to be with their dogs in the wild, for whom the finding of the truffle is but the natural culmination of a natural endeavour; and those who perceive it as a thing to be exploited. Hence the disingenuousness about dealing and territory, the inequity of a pricing structure in which the broker takes the greatest gain for the least work, the poisoning of dogs by competitors, and the buyer who reaps the fruits of the whole process grated over his fried eggs. Most engaging are the old men themselves, some happy to give away their truffles, others determined to die with the secret of their art, some married, most not, but all with one thing in common: the bond with their animals.
Country: IT/GR/US
Technical: col 84m
Director: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
Cast: doc.
Synopsis:
A heterogeneous group of Piemontese truffle hunters and their dogs respond in differing ways to climate change, old age, and the effects of 'the market' on their traditional modus vivendi.
Review:
Proceeding in mostly fixed, objective shots of moderate duration, this subtle documentary is the opposite of the fly-on-the-wall exposé one might expect, leading the unreflective viewer to absorb the beauty and tranquility at face value and come away with one of those Buena Vista-style tributes to a long-lived but dying breed of old salts. The more observant, on the other hand, will perceive two very different classes of men ranged against one another in a fragile entente: those who are content to be with their dogs in the wild, for whom the finding of the truffle is but the natural culmination of a natural endeavour; and those who perceive it as a thing to be exploited. Hence the disingenuousness about dealing and territory, the inequity of a pricing structure in which the broker takes the greatest gain for the least work, the poisoning of dogs by competitors, and the buyer who reaps the fruits of the whole process grated over his fried eggs. Most engaging are the old men themselves, some happy to give away their truffles, others determined to die with the secret of their art, some married, most not, but all with one thing in common: the bond with their animals.