The Fruit Hunters
(Canada, 95 min.)
Dir. Yung Chang, Writ. Yung Chang, Mark Slutsky
Book: Adam Gollner
Featuring: Bill Pullman, Noris Ledesma and Richard Campbell,
Isabella Dalla.
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| Photo credit: Mila Aung-Thwin, © EyesteelFilm, Inc. |
Fruit is the unsung hero of gourmet nibblings. An aspiring
foodie, my exotic samplings tend to veer on the carnivorous side. I’ve tried
horse (loved it), cooked an octopus (I liked it, others did not), paired an
ostrich burger with a kangaroo burger (liked the former, but the latter tastes
like horse laced with multi-purpose cleaner), and would eat bone marrow every
day if I could. When it comes to fruit, however, my adventurousness ends at
canned peaches. Foodies need to take a cue from their mommies and eat their
fruits and vegetables, too. Foodie film-buffs will love The Fruit Hunters, then, since its reveals a smorgasbord of
decadent edibles with a better eco-footprint and calorie count than fatty
meats.
Like the sprightly John Laroche in Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief, the fruit hunters are an
eccentric bunch who shows that the most desirable prizes are the hardest to
obtain. Fruit hunters like Noris Ledesma and Richard Campbell, for example,
embark on an odyssey akin to that of John Laroche and Susan Orlean as they
trounce the Florida everglades in search of the mysterious ghost orchid. Ledesma
and Campbell are in search of a rare mango-like fruit: Richard brought a sample
back to Miami years before and has been grafting plants that have yet to yield
any fruit. Some tasty exotic fruits are like the Holy Grail of healthy living.
Another thread of The
Fruit Hunters follows actor Bill
Pullman as he details his passion for exotic fruits. Pullman, too, takes the
viewer on a journey to foreign lands, but his story is also about trying to
spread the love for healthy eating with his fellow Americans. The film reveals
Pullman’s attempt to establish an exotic fruit co-op right in the heart of the
Hollywood hills. Even in the epicentre of mass production, juicy hidden
treasures are just a few steps away.
Whether it’s a fruit detective in Italy or a lychee hungry
courtesan in Imperial China, the film blends documentary footage with spirited
dramatic re-enactments to show how fruit has shaped the world since the first
bite of an apple. Like Adaptation.,
Charlie Kaufman’s zany adaptation of Susan Orlean’s Orchid Thief, The Fruit
Hunters looks back through the ages of human history and charts the course
that brought certain plants and tastes into kitchens in North America. The Fruit Hunters adds a few other
flavours to show how the mania for exotic fruit-stuff travels the globe. Likewise,
the film shows how much of the accessibility to certain foods is driven by
generations of capitalism: I would have never guessed that the Cavendish banana
had such a history on how and why it came to be the staple of food stores
everywhere. The Fruit Hunters is more
akin to what The Orchid Thief would
be had Kaufman done a straightforward adaptation, but Chang’s take on the
popular book is still a fun and informative look at food culture. (And I’m sure
Adam Gollner appreciates that writers Chang and Slutsky didn’t turn him into a
drug-snorting porn star…)
The film, however, might have extended the implications of
the fruit hunters’ quests more strongly had it narrowed in on fewer threads.
The story with Pullman’s quest to expand exotic fruit appreciation in Hollywood
could have been a film in itself (Pullman’s story joined the film in its early
stages), but the thread nevertheless implies that cultivating the fruity riches
of the earth offers considerable advantages to economic and environmental
sustainability. The sentiment echoes in another thread in which the forest of a
nomadic tribe is threatened by deforestation, but the snapshot seems secondary
amidst other narratives of greater narrative significance. Likewise, the interesting
story with Ledesma and Campbell sometimes gets lost amidst the other fruit
hunters, but their journey offers some general details on horticulture and
informs viewers on how the fruit hunters manage to transport and grow such
plants back in America.
In every case, though, The
Fruit Hunters playfully reveals how the juicy samplings of the fruit are
worth the effort, whether taste or health/eco-consciousness is the desired
treat. The Fruit Hunters is certainly
a success, though, as its mouth-watering odyssey through food culture is sure
to inspire a wave of fruit hunting within moviegoers. The film tingles the
taste buds with its sprawling account of our connection to the earth and of our
duty to preserve its tasty riches.
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| Cactus pear, persimmon, 'plant' |
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| Dragon fruit and star fruit. |
Foodies and film buffs alike were treated to free samplings
of exotic fruits following a screening of The
Fruit Hunters at The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. I tried some strange thing that
was like a cross between a grape and a lychee. It intrigued my taste buds, so
my brother and I eagerly explored the fruit markets in The Annex and Chinatown
for juicy treats. The first wave of fruit hunting brought forth a persimmon, a
cactus pear, and some green thing that had the generic taste of “plant”. I
quite enjoyed the persimmon (like an orange-tomato hybrid) and the cactus pear
(different, but in a good way). The “plant” stayed sliced up on the plate. Day 2
had even better rewards: a dragon fruit and a star fruit. Both are tasty and
juicy, and they’re not too extreme
for casual fruit eaters to sample whilst branching out from apples and bananas.
I might even go in search of a durian today, if I feel up for the challenge.
Congrats, Fruits
Hunters – you have one more fruit fan ripe for the plucking!
The Fruit Hunters opens in Ottawa at The Mayfair (Bank) on Feb. 8.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
