THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS

In the forests of Piedmont, a handful of men in their seventies to nineties search with their dogs for white Alba truffles, which still cannot be cultivated and for which dealers in the city pay high sums. They go out at night, alone, and reveal their spots to no one. The film accompanies them as they search, as they dine with the dog at the table, as they haggle with the buyers, and in a quarrel with a wife who would rather have the old man at home. In “The Truffle Hunters” (Italy/USA 2020), Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw show a world threatened by modern life and climate change – and men who want nothing to do with that knowledge.

The images are firmly composed tableaux in which the figures move; for the hunt itself the camera sat with the dog. The film had its world premiere in January 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival, then screened in Telluride, Toronto and at the New York Film Festival, and was shortlisted for the Documentary Oscar. “The Truffle Hunters” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2020 as the closing film in the Closing Night section.

Shown at the 2020 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2020 · Film Archive