The Fruit Hunters

In this journey around the world, we watch as members of the Rare Fruit Counsel ("It blossomed into a fulltime case of insanity") dedicate themselves to the preservation of the diversity of fruit varieties. In Miami, we meet a mango farmer who travels to Indonesia to procure "white mango" cuttings. In Hollywood, actor Bill Pullman is pulling out all the stops to get the Hollywood Hills transformed into a fruit orchard. And in Umbria, Italy, we follow Isabella Dalla Ragione as she investigates the origins of the fig. These scenes are interspersed with reenacted and animated scenes exploring the history of fruit. The fruit hunters talk so vividly and passionately about their subject that it makes your mouth water. It's a veritable sensory adventure, in which you'll believe you can feel the creamy banana, smell the stinky durian fruit, and taste the refreshing sweet mango - and all the other fruits that pass the revue. Director Yung Chang, who also provides the voice-over, contrasts all of this with the commercial fruit trade and its creation of a monoculture, as it seeks to manufacture that single banana or apple variety that is best suited to export and retail.