The Whistlers (film)

The Whistlers (or La Gomera) is a 2019 Romanian crime thriller film directed by Corneliu Porumboiu and starring Vlad Ivanov. It premiered in competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot
A police officer comes to the Spanish island of La Gomera to learn the language of El Silbo and to free Zsolt, a controversial businessman arrested in Bucharest.

Cast

 * Vlad Ivanov as Cristi
 * Catrinel Marlon as Gilda
 * Agustí Villaronga as Paco
 * Cristóbal Pinto as Carlito
 * Sergiu Costache as Toma
 * Antonio Buíl as Kiko

Production
The film was produced through the director's company 42 km Film in collaboration with France's Les Films du Worso and Germany's Komplizen Film, with mk2 handling the distribution sales. Shooting took place in Romania and the Canary Islands.

Release
The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. In May 2019, the film's UK distribution rights were sold to Curzon Artificial Eye.

Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".