Alba truffles

Thanks to Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s documentary, the door is slightly cracked open on northern Italy’s secretive world of nighttime quests for precious Alba truffles. Not that the filmmakers found themselves welcomed by the few octogenarians who hunt by night in places known only to them. In fact, these two spent more time building trust with the two central experts, 88-year-old Carlo and 84-year-old Aurelio, than it took to shoot the film.

Thanks to Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s documentary, the door is slightly cracked open on northern Italy’s secretive world of nighttime quests for precious Alba truffles. Not that the filmmakers found themselves welcomed by the few octogenarians who hunt by night in places known only to them. In fact, these two spent more time building trust with the two central experts, 88-year-old Carlo and 84-year-old Aurelio, than it took to shoot the film.

To simply call The Truffle Hunters a documentary feels disrespectful. Directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw have created a piece of art themselves, paying homage to a handful of elderly Italian men – and their dogs – who have dedicated their lives to finding Alba truffles, the increasingly rare fungi whose knobby shape and dirty hue belie their exorbitant value to gourmands.