TRIFOLE (2024) Gabriele Fabbro / Writers: Gabriele Fabbro & Ydalie Turk / Cinematographer: Brandon Lattman (1.85 : 1) / Design: Serena Viganò / Editor: Gabriele Fabbro / Composer: Alberto Mandarini / Acted by: Ydalie Turk, Umberto Orsini, Margherita Buy, Frances Sholto-Douglas, Enzo Iacchetti, Francesco Zecca, & Birba, the Truffle Hunting Dog! / Italy / Distributor: Cohen Media Group / Not Rated / Length: 101 mins.
The autumnal stroll from the train station to grandfather’s home is exquisitely detailed: every hue in the color wheel is brought to bear upon the sumptuous opening credit sequence. But once she is just a few paces away from her destination, Dalia (Ydalie Turk) encounters a puddle — symbolic foreboding of events that could prove emotionally monsoonal for the girl. A professional truffle-sniffer by trade, Grandpa Igo’s (Umberto Orsini, Italian cinema royalty) cognitive decline is such that he no longer bothers with a ringing telephone. That's why Dalia's mother Marta (Margherita Buy) has sent her on what is basically a long-distance wellness check. The girl doesn’t know what she’s going to find, least of all a satisfying third act.
Igo (short for Igor) doesn’t suffer from the pathos-laden cum comic-relief strain of dementia found in most Hollywood films on the topic. Dalia puts in an S.O.S. call to her mother, but rather than recognizing Marta on the phone, Igo assumes she’s outside the front door, and asks her in for a cup of coffee. "Stranger in Paradise" underscores Dalia’s perusal of the newspaper clippings, photos, and other artifacts that line the walls of Igo’s study. And who needs television when you can just pull up a chair and witness the dramatic changes of seasons outside the window?
Igo lives alone with his four-legged pal Birba, a descendant from an ancient Italian breed specifically known for truffle hunting. As every seasoned truffle sniffer knows, when Jupiter throws his lightning bolt, wherever it lands, there are truffles! At this point, filmmaker Gabriele Fabbro seems poised to deliver on an obscure but oddly compelling topic (truffle tracking), set in an equally recondite fairy-tale forest buttressed with charm to spare.
See, Dalia is empty, and feels as if she's a failure. The slightest sound causes her to flinch. And apart from an eviction notice hanging over his head, all Igo has are his damn truffles and his stubborn refusal to share his secret. It’s at this point in our journey that Igo takes a bad fall, forcing Dalia to fill in at this year’s truffle auction, where exceptionally large edible fungi have been known to fetch 150,000 euros at auction. And oh happy day: good old Birba has unearthed one that’s bigger than Dalia’s head. But with Igo out of commission for a large part of the picture, whatever rapport we enjoyed between him and Dalia is replaced by the filmmakers' insistent playing of the fantasy card — never once wondering if all this confection will cause audiences to yak. **
TRIFOLE (2024) Gabriele Fabbro / Writers: Gabriele Fabbro & Ydalie Turk / Cinematographer: Brandon Lattman (1.85 : 1) / Design: Serena Viganò / Editor: Gabriele Fabbro / Composer: Alberto Mandarini / Acted by: Ydalie Turk, Umberto Orsini, Margherita Buy, Frances Sholto-Douglas, Enzo Iacchetti, Francesco Zecca, & Birba, the Truffle Hunting Dog! / Italy / Distributor: Cohen Media Group / Not Rated / Length: 101 mins.
The autumnal stroll from the train station to grandfather’s home is exquisitely detailed: every hue in the color wheel is brought to bear upon the sumptuous opening credit sequence. But once she is just a few paces away from her destination, Dalia (Ydalie Turk) encounters a puddle — symbolic foreboding of events that could prove emotionally monsoonal for the girl. A professional truffle-sniffer by trade, Grandpa Igo’s (Umberto Orsini, Italian cinema royalty) cognitive decline is such that he no longer bothers with a ringing telephone. That's why Dalia's mother Marta (Margherita Buy) has sent her on what is basically a long-distance wellness check. The girl doesn’t know what she’s going to find, least of all a satisfying third act.
Igo (short for Igor) doesn’t suffer from the pathos-laden cum comic-relief strain of dementia found in most Hollywood films on the topic. Dalia puts in an S.O.S. call to her mother, but rather than recognizing Marta on the phone, Igo assumes she’s outside the front door, and asks her in for a cup of coffee. "Stranger in Paradise" underscores Dalia’s perusal of the newspaper clippings, photos, and other artifacts that line the walls of Igo’s study. And who needs television when you can just pull up a chair and witness the dramatic changes of seasons outside the window?
Igo lives alone with his four-legged pal Birba, a descendant from an ancient Italian breed specifically known for truffle hunting. As every seasoned truffle sniffer knows, when Jupiter throws his lightning bolt, wherever it lands, there are truffles! At this point, filmmaker Gabriele Fabbro seems poised to deliver on an obscure but oddly compelling topic (truffle tracking), set in an equally recondite fairy-tale forest buttressed with charm to spare.
See, Dalia is empty, and feels as if she's a failure. The slightest sound causes her to flinch. And apart from an eviction notice hanging over his head, all Igo has are his damn truffles and his stubborn refusal to share his secret. It’s at this point in our journey that Igo takes a bad fall, forcing Dalia to fill in at this year’s truffle auction, where exceptionally large edible fungi have been known to fetch 150,000 euros at auction. And oh happy day: good old Birba has unearthed one that’s bigger than Dalia’s head. But with Igo out of commission for a large part of the picture, whatever rapport we enjoyed between him and Dalia is replaced by the filmmakers' insistent playing of the fantasy card — never once wondering if all this confection will cause audiences to yak. **