The Truffle Hunters is a wonderfully shot documentary, featuring some lovingly pure characters- and their beloved truffle sniffing dogs- alongside some rather more loathesome middlemen, who act to unjustly exploit them...in, what is quite unexpectedly, a rather dirty game.
One complete with murder, and mafia intrigue.
Which goes to show why Italian truffles are among the most over-inflated and costly resources known to man.
As a long time mushroom forager, myself...I completely understand how it's "all about the aroma".
And the grimey game that middlemen will try and play with you.
Why I always represent myself, and deal directly with restaurant owners, myself.
The truffle hunters, and their pup sidekicks, featured here, are among the most loveable characters you could ever catch on screen.
From the 88 year old, who can't come around to listen to his worried wife. To a hardworking man and his two canine companions, he can't stop losing to rogue poisoners. And what seems like the lonliest man in the world (if it wasn't for his dog).
These men live for the grind...and it just might be keeping them alive, not to mention limber, at their ripe old ages.
Unfortunately, these men are not only the victims of the mafia-style actors working as middlemen...but also the goons who seek to murder their beloved companions...so as to give their bosses a leg up in the game.
Something that is both tragic, and angering.
Nonetheless, these men need to survive, and thus keep on struggling through all the hardships they face.
But I've no doubt that God is on the side of these beautiful men- and their dogs- and will grace them with the most glorious afterlife...filled with hilled forests on which to continue their daily hunts for these most sought after treasures of culinary wonderment, for eternity.
Because Lord knows they deserve it.
What a magical collection of stories and all around beautiful film.
8 out of 10.
One complete with murder, and mafia intrigue.
Which goes to show why Italian truffles are among the most over-inflated and costly resources known to man.
As a long time mushroom forager, myself...I completely understand how it's "all about the aroma".
And the grimey game that middlemen will try and play with you.
Why I always represent myself, and deal directly with restaurant owners, myself.
The truffle hunters, and their pup sidekicks, featured here, are among the most loveable characters you could ever catch on screen.
From the 88 year old, who can't come around to listen to his worried wife. To a hardworking man and his two canine companions, he can't stop losing to rogue poisoners. And what seems like the lonliest man in the world (if it wasn't for his dog).
These men live for the grind...and it just might be keeping them alive, not to mention limber, at their ripe old ages.
Unfortunately, these men are not only the victims of the mafia-style actors working as middlemen...but also the goons who seek to murder their beloved companions...so as to give their bosses a leg up in the game.
Something that is both tragic, and angering.
Nonetheless, these men need to survive, and thus keep on struggling through all the hardships they face.
But I've no doubt that God is on the side of these beautiful men- and their dogs- and will grace them with the most glorious afterlife...filled with hilled forests on which to continue their daily hunts for these most sought after treasures of culinary wonderment, for eternity.
Because Lord knows they deserve it.
What a magical collection of stories and all around beautiful film.
8 out of 10.