THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS

★★★★ OUT 5 FEBRUARY / CERT TBC / 84 MINS Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw DIRECTORS Carlo, Aurelio, Angelo, Egidio, PARTICIPANTS Sergio

Produced by Call Me By Your Name’s Luca Guadagnino, this delightful documentary dives into the secret sub-culture of hunting for the elusive White Alba truffle in the Piedpoint forests of Italy. The film’s heroes are the foragers, old men from rural villages equally devoted to their dogs as the hunt. What it lacks in narrative drive it makes up for in lovely whimsically framed vignettes; priests blessing a hunter and his hound for truffle season; truffle-brokers on a street corner doing a sale like a drug deal; a gourmet buyer melts in a reverie over shaved truffle on a fried egg to the strains of Tosca. The end result is a poignant lament for a dying art that doubles as foodie heaven.