Piedmont’s Rarest Truffle Lands in the US
TORONTO – Securing a theatrical release in the US is a typically onerous task for any foreign film, due to a combination of market factors. The culture barriers are usually the highest hurdle for a production to clear, as the costs alone associated with dubbing, subtitling and marketing a foreign film are often enough of a deterrent for distributors. This year, however [Familia aside], Italian productions have piqued more interest than usual from American distributors. And the latest success story is about the Truffle world.
Trifole, tagged by its Producer Massimo Fabbro as a “tiny film from a tiny corner of Italy” (Alba, Piedmont), will launch its US theatrical run on November 14th. It joins an impressive class of 2025, that is, Italian films which earned a US theatrical release. A class that includes Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow, Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope and Laura Lucchetti’s The Beautiful Summer, to name a few.
Trifole centers around an elderly truffle hunter who’s grappling with dementia, and whose daughter helps him to locate the elusive Alba White Truffle – to save his home. Interestingly, a film about finding the rarest and most sought after truffle, also succeeds in its quest to secure the “holy grail” of distribution deals.
Trifole has usurped Cortellesi’s and Sorrentino’s hit films in one specific department – the number of screens. It will be screening in 150 theatres across the US, compared with Cortellesi’s 111 and Sorrentino’s 139. For perspective, American Indie films launch with up to 50 screens, expanding to several hundred with momentum gained. Foreign films start with less on a limited release. Trifole however is being distributed by Cohen Media Group – the same company that repped Italy’s 2024 Oscar entry Io Capitano.
An advantageous partnership, which is clearly mirroring the synergy of the film’s father/son duo. Directing Trifole is the Producer’s son Gabriele Fabbro who from the project’s inception, declared that he did “not want to go straight to streaming. We want to work with distributors who still believe that cinema should be experienced in theaters. Every partner we’ve chosen shares that vision”.
Trifole is Fabbro’s second film, following The Grand Bolero (2021), a love story between a pipe organ restorer and her student. As co-screenwriter with Ydalie Turk, Fabbro set and shot the film in Piedmont on a budget of €1.4 million, driven by his gastronomic passion for the legendary Alba Truffle. But how does a film about a fungus that grows underground attract over €1 million in investment?
Producer Massimo Fabbro claims, “we worked hard to attract private investors, most of whom were from the region itself”. And while Italian Producers like Andrea Iervolino are trying to secure rocket ships for films set in outer space, the Fabbro family simply tapped into a story that a “tiny corner of Italy” wanted told. Proving quite literally that launching a successful film…is not rocket science.
Images courtesy of TrifoleMovie and Cohen Media Group
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
