THE WHISTLERS
★★★
OUT CERT /
Corneliu Porumboiu
Vlad Ivanov, Catrinel Marlon, Rodica Lazar, Agusti Villaronga, Sabin Tambrea
Corrupt cop Cristi (Ivanov) travels to the Canary Islands to learn an ancient whistling language — something that becomes increasingly important as he gets caught up in a plot involving gangsters, a mattress stashed with cash and the enigmatic Gilda (Marlon), who may or may not steal his heart.
ROMANIAN CINEMA, WITH its handheld cameras, long dialogue scenes and Ceausescu subtext, is perhaps not the place you’d expect to find a film noir. But Corneliu Porumboiu’s The Whistlers transports the taciturn heroes, femme fatales and ambiguous morality of ’40s Hollywood to a globetrotting tale of a corrupt cop while investing the yarn with a low-key, almost whimsical, bent. It’s not an easy watch — you have to really pay attention to keep track of its ever-deepening mysteries — but it has enough genre-bending pleasures to make it worthwhile
The title is indicative of its sly, loopy charms. Crooked cop Cristi (Porumboiu regular Vlad Ivanov) arrives on the island of La Gomera in the Canaries to learn the ancient whistling language of the Guanches, an indigenous tribe native to the region. Performed by putting a bent triggerfinger in your mouth to form vowels and words, whistling has become the MO for gangsters to talk to each other as a means to avoid hacking techniques. “The police will hear it and think the birds are singing!” Cristi is told, and the scenes of characters ‘chirping’, be it across a huge ravine in
Africa or a tower block in Bucharest, remain some of the film’s most entrancing.
The convoluted plot sees Cristi play two sides — the cops and the crims — against each other as he plans to spring small-time hood Zsolt (Sabin Tambrea) out of jail. Zsolt is the owner of a mattress factory being used to launder and distribute huge sums of euros to Spanish and Venezuelan gangsters. Surrounding Zsolt is Big Boss Paco (Agusti Villaronga), whistling supremo Kiko (Antonio Buíl) and Catrinel Marlon’s Gilda (a big-brimmed hat tip to Rita Hayworth), Zsolt’s femme-fatale girlfriend who owns a never-ending wardrobe of slinky dresses. On the supposedly law-and-order side is equally dubious, scary-eyed police chief Magda (Rodica Lazar), who has installed cameras in Cristi’s apartment, and slow-coach partner Alin (George Pistereanu). And then there’s Cristi’s mother (Julieta Szönyi), who’s convinced her son is gay.
It’s a dense, difficult-to-follow affair, made even harder by Porumboiu unravelling his story with flashbacks, and a title card introducing each new character that takes us deeper down the rabbit hole of deceit. Ivanov is a no- nonsense presence but he never really lets you under the skin to make Cristi’s journey — especially his feelings for Gilda — affecting.
In some ways the film is perhaps best appreciated in its mini vignettes — a tense scene at Cristi’s mother’s house, a set-piece in Singapore’s fabulously kitsch Gardens By The Bay — rather than its overall storytelling design. Visually strong with great tuneage (there’s a killer use of Iggy Pop’s ‘The Passenger’ at the outset), Porumboiu’s story has fun exploring the similarities between thriller staples and his country’s history (surveillance is prevalent in both). You’re just not sure what you are left with by the time the mysteries are solved.
A lightweight noir that might leave you scratching your head. It’s a fun diversion but, if you’re looking for depth, you might as well just put your lips together and blow.
OUT
OUT /