Rotation in the Piedmont: a journey into the realm of the truffle hunter

What mushrooms do accumulate with the Dutch Baroque painting? A lot, if you look at “truffle Hunters”, the documentary by Michael Dweck, and Gregory Kershaw,. This starts in the opening scene. As the camera moves slowly to the Panorama of a Herbstwalds. What you think is only for the bird’s-eye view, emerges as a straight look at a wall full of Golden yellow the trees, through whose branches, two black-and-white-spotted dogs urge. Only a little later, the man falls in mud, a green vest with a walking stick works behind the dogs on the steep slope. The colors and the structure of the scene ähnelen those on the landscape paintings of Dutch masters. That Association is no accident, kidnap the two filmmakers, however, in a world in which time seems to stand still.

Maria Wiesner

editor in the Department of society FAZ.NET.

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More than three years, Dweck and Kershaw have spent in the villages of Piedmont and those of old men accompanied by a passion for the truffle hunt. Since Aurelio is 84 years old, childless, the younger truffle hunters seek to elicit the secrets of his regular places. A suggestion, against which he defends himself, of course, vehemently. His only Companion, the dog Birba, which he cherishes like a daughter.

Then Carlo is there, 88 years old, his wife tried to find him on the nightly truffle exorcise’re looking for. Of course, he sneaks in anyway in the darkest of darkness, with his dogs through the woods. Sergio, 68 years, on the other hand, like to time with other truffle hunters on a chat. The conversations make it clear how much the culture of secrecy prevails among them, as the pressure of competition is. Sergio will talk about in the course of the film, that he always has an antidote in the car, because some collectors like to put poison in their Bodies to drive away the dogs. Sergio has already lost two of his highly sensitive truffle dogs. As one of his animals died during the shoot, he will break out in front of a police officer in tears.

The film-maker Michael Dweck (left) and Gregory Kershaw (right) during the shooting of “Truffle Hunters” in the Piedmont. : Image: PR

There are such intimate shots that show how much time and patience to put the documentary filmmaker in the project. Not only to win the confidence of their protagonists, and also to get such aesthetically sophisticated recordings.

those Who know the Italian houses of those villages in the mountains and the dark wood trimmings and white, the swallow in these rooms, usually the light will sit in wonder at the images and wonder how the film crew managed to put the truffle hunter in their apartments almost exclusively with natural light in the scene. “That wasn’t so easy,” recalls Kershaw during a video interview. “We have spent a lot of time to wait for the right Moment, the right lighting opportunity. With Aurelio, there was just this window at the dining table and the sun shone to two hours per day.“

the business with The truffle: this side of the fungus is illuminated in “Truffle Hunters”. : Image: Truffle Hunters/Sony Classic

mushroom hunting from the point of view of the dog

While Waiting for the right moment you are some of the interesting ideas came from. So you have a shoemaker in the village of making a harness with a GoPro camera on the head of a dog attach. The resulting images, the truffle show search from the perspective of the dog, and simultaneously give insight into the relationship between the collectors and their dogs. Once alone in the forest, the old men start with the animals, almost a dialogue, in part, in a language far from the Piedmontese dialect removed solely on the communication between master and dog is tailored.

This Idyll to counter the film-makers, those impressions that you have collected in the world of the truffle trade. Like mosaic pieces the Events together puzzling itself. On scenes from the forest and the villages and homes of the truffle finder follow footage of award ceremonies, in which the most splendid truffle is awarded, it is observed in the light of car headlights in the night-time purchase of fresh white truffle, for the four-digit sums of money, and you overheard the phone calls of a truffle dealer, the times French, at times with Russian client speaks and at some point his daughter, explain to must why you hardly truffles to eat at home.

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