Ah, global warming, you devious bastard. Rising temperatures have had unexpected consequences in Kim Nguyen's Truffe, prime among them the sudden emergence of Montreal as the Black Truffle capital of the world, the tasty little morsels sprouting by the thousands deep below the surface. All that needs to be done is to go and get them. It's instant wealth for all, particularly for Charles - played by Roy Dupuis - who is the greatest truffle hunter of them all, a man blessed with such a sensitive nose that he pulls up truffles by the bagload from the small truffle mine beneath his apartment. At least it's wealth for all until the sudden flood of truffles causes the bottom to drop out of prices, leaving the miners to scramble for their supper. And what of the strange local fur shop intent on buying up the truffle mines, using their fuzzy little creations to control the minds and souls of Montreal's hard working men? Surely there is more here than meets the eye ...

Wake up Canada! We've got a true gem on our hands here, a film that could have been made by Jean-Pierre Jeunet in his Delicatessen era prime and we're letting it slip away unnoticed. Kim Nguyen's Truffe is right on the cusp of becoming a lost film, a truly striking piece of work that had the misfortune of being completed just as production company Christal Films was going under, a situation that led to the tiniest of public appearances in Quebec, no screenings that I'm aware of anywhere else at all, and a PR budget so meager that even the official website has been pulled down less than a year after the film premiered due to lack of money.It's a sad, sad situation, one made tolerable only thanks to Christal's buyout by Seville, a buyout that came too late to get Truffe but has at least ensured that the film got a small - again, zero promotion - DVD release.

I don't often shill for a film this blatantly, but if you care about the state of Canadian film at all then get out and buy this film. We have a shortage of truly original film makers in this country, and far too many producers who want only to do things the safe - read: boring - way so when something like Truffe comes along it is just hugely important that fans of the strange and unusual support it.

After all, if it fails it becomes just one more example for producers to trot out as justification for denying anything similar in the future. And beyond those concerns there's the fact that this is just one damn good movie, a surreal little fairy tale loaded up with striking visuals and strong performances and little furry creatures that want to crawl down your throat to control your brain from inside your stomach. Don't believe me? The official website may be dead but you can still find the trailer here. Get to it.