Amid its convoluted nature there’s loopy and airy qualities that elevate this import, subtitled in English, Romanian and Spanish.
The Whistlers had its share of cold-hearted betrayal poised as a néo-noir thriller built around voyeurism, greed and loyalty.
The enigmatic allure of Gilda (Catrinel Marlon gets on-the-take Bucharest cop Cristi (veteran Romanian actor Viad Ivanov) to head to La Gomera of the Canary Islands. vernacular
He’ll need to master El Siblo, a unique, ancestral titular vernacular used by the underworld back in Eastern Europe. A wryness is unearthed by director Comeliu Porumboiu as a code is used to battle authorities and a key channel of expression between Cristi and an object of unrequited love.
Plenty of moolah has been exported in mattresses with a drug-fueled laundering business that Christi has been investigating and involved in. A larger cache awaits those as that birdy linguistics is necessary to free an inmate to complete the job.
The filmmakers use that levity judiciously to move through the complications as plenty of ambiguity lies within identity and leanings. The Whistlers implicitly takes on the meaning of whistleblowers in a perilous light and elements of the story are reminiscent of notable films by the likes of Orson Welles and Neil Jordan.
Being used, set up and watched in the privacy of a that is par for the course that provides interest for what happens to Gilda and a lovelorn, if avaricious Cristi Marlon and Ivanov have the presence to make it rather watchable as a neat, shiftiness is palatably pervasive.
Even if you could give a hoot about what it all means when it comes to meanies and canaries the conclusion will likely catch you off-guard in a good way. Besides having a solid dichotomy in use of locations from damp, gloomy Bucharest to sun-drenched La Gomera.