Truffe
2008, Canada
Directed by Kim Nguyen
Written by Kim Nguyen
Produced by Kim Nguyen
Starring: Céline Bonnier, Roy Dupuis, Pierre Lebeau, Danielle Proulx
Genre: Science fiction
Distributor: Christal Films
Running Time: 75 minutes

Before Fantasia’s red-carpet screening of opening film Truffe, festival co-president Mark Lamothe called the genre film festival a place of “dreams and imagination.” I’m not sure what kind of person dreams of truffles for 75 minutes, but I picture them as some sort of massively obese French gourmand, sweating curdled butter into a brine made of rose water and smoked sel gris.

And if so, they will be well pleased by Truffe, in which global warming has turned Montreal into an enormous truffle field, the rare fungi now as common as steamed hotdogs and heart disease in the city. Famed Quebecois actor Roy Dupuis plays Charles, a truffle hunter with a nose of unparalleled sensitivity, who digs up the delicacies in underground mines to help support his wife’s greasy spoon diner. If that weren’t a strange enough premise, there’s also an evil corporation run by robots, in turn controlled by furry snakes that are themselves under the influence of hypnotic crystals. At 75 minutes, it actually takes longer to explain the film than it does to watch it.

With an immersive atmosphere, a drifting camera, and trance-like pacing, the black and white film does inspire a dream-like reverie. It occasionally gets a little too cute for its own good, but writer/director Kim Nguyen commits to the premise fully, and ultimately sells the film with his own enthusiasm. Performances are deliberately campy at times, particularly by the supporting cast, but that only helps to heighten the sense of unreality, and Dupuis is commanding, as always. However, the film doesn’t aspire for greatness, and therefore never manages to feel like too much more than a minor riff on Delicatessen. But it did make me hungry.