This was the official submission to the 92nd Academy Awards from Romania. It was written and directed by Corneliu Porumboiu who had his previous film
Police, Adjective submitted to the 82nd Academy Awards. Romanian cinema has been a thing since the 1960's but since 2005 has been a segment of European filmmaking that's been on the rise. Yet, Romania has never been nominated in 50 years and has only been shortlisted once. Porumboiu really conforms to how a lot of Romanian cinema has been, which is more slow-pace and quiet, as well as opaqueness where the crime drama and in fact drama is more kept at arm's length that never draws the audience closer but keeps them at bay.
This film is perhaps more inviting because the film isn't just showing us something. It's also teaching us something. The setting of this film is mostly on the island of La Gomera. La Gomera is part of the Canary Islands and is one of the smaller ones. Despite being volcanic in origin, one of the unique things about La Gomera is that people have developed a whistling language. Spanish is the official language of the Canary Islands, but people there developed a whistling language from Spanish that they use to communicate over the volcanic mountains and valleys on the island. That whistling language is called "el silbo," and the film does educate the audience in how it works and how it's done. The film finds a clever way to utilize this whistling language, but, ultimately, the film spends too much time on building up the whistling than it does building up the characters.
Vlad Ivanov (
Police, Adjective and
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) stars as Cristi Anghelache, a police detective in Romania who goes to the Canary Islands to learn the whistling language in order to help free a man who was arrested. He's either a corrupt cop or a compromised cop. It's not clear whether he's just a bad guy or if his hand was forced. This is the inherent problem with Porumboiu's film and sometimes Romanian cinema. Going back to the opaqueness and how at arm's length this film can be, the film didn't do enough to get me to know who Cristi really is or help me to understand why he's doing what he's doing.
For example, we see Cristi have a sex scene with a woman early in the film. He seems to enjoy it. Later, he's questioned to be gay because he's unmarried and has no children, despite being a man who is in his late 40's and early 50's. This opaqueness about who Cristi is aides in that scene, but, at no point does the film clarify or dig into why he is unmarried and has no children at his age. The film doesn't have to dig into him that deeply. The film could just be about this situation, but it seems as if by the end, the film wants us to feel something about him. It's difficult for me to feel something for a man, if I'm not allowed to get to know him or dig into who he is.
Catrinel Marlon (
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) co-stars as Gilda, the woman who recruits Cristi into this plot involving a drug cartel and mobsters. If this feature was a film noir, which in many ways it is, then Gilda would be the femme fatale. There is an opaqueness and distance from her, which is purposeful, but it also frustrates in allowing us to understand and care about her too. Only at the very end of the film does it become evident that she's after a large sum of hidden money. Until then, it's just unclear what's going on in her head. Then, at the end, we're supposed to think that she has feelings or some affection for Cristi, but whatever affection she had fell flat for me.
Not Rated but contains graphic nudity, sexuality and bloody violence.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 38 mins.
Available on Hulu.
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