The Whistlers
La Gomera
Romanian, English, Spanish / Subtitles French, English
Tickets
The Canary Islands are home to a whistled language, the Silbo. All the talent of Corneliu Porumboiu was undoubtedly required to use it for the most exhilarating thriller of the year, an ironic to-and-fro where femmes fatales, dirty cops and filthy Mafiosi imitate birds. Awesome!
In To Have and Have Not (1944), Lauren Bacall lays into Humphrey Bogart, “You don’t have to act with me. You don’t have to say anything or do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you? You just put your lips together and blow.” Fascinated with Silbo, a whistled language, Corneliu Porumboiu has chosen La Gomera in the Canary Islands as the set for his humor-filled thriller. As in a last fight, Mafiosi, cops and femmes fatales all play a role, imitating birdsongs.