THE WHISTLERS World Cinema

ROMANIA OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM OSCAR^® SUBMISSION

Talent attending: Corneliu Porumboiu (Director)

Romanian auteur Corneliu Porumboiu returns to AFI FEST with his latest, a tremendously entertaining and inventive crime thriller. When corrupt police officer Cristi is drawn into an elaborate money laundering scheme, ubiquitous hidden cameras threaten to expose him. At once instigator and accomplice, the beautiful, calculating Gilda, arranges for him to travel to the Canary Island of La Gomera to learn an indigenous whistling language long used by criminals and gangsters to evade authorities. Constructing a preposterously complicated network of deception, an epically proportioned heist plot unravels into a true ensemble piece, one brimming with captivating personalities, each sheltering unknowable motives. THE WHISTLERS may herald a fascinating departure for Porumboiu, but flashes of a droll sense of humor flicker under a stone-faced seriousness. –Malin Kan