Corneliu PorumboiuThe Romanian crime flick The Whistlers was acquired by Magnolia Pictures at the Cannes Film Festival recently with the intent to distribute the film in North America sometime later this year.
Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles praised the film as “incredible gush of pure entertainment” and hailed writer/director Corneliu Porumboiuh as a ramping talent from the intriguing New Romanian cinema scene.
“Porumboiu has been making brilliant films for the last few years,” Bowles added, “and he has outdone himself with his most crowd-pleasing work yet.”
The film centres on a corrupt detective who, on investigating a criminal gang in the Canary Islands, must learn their unique thieves’ cant which involves chirps, hisses and whistles.
On the tone, Porumboiu spoke to Deadline about his editing process:
“I cut a lot of scenes in the editing. I cut half an hour. I had more humour scenes, like in the previous movies that I made, but I [made] a decision in the editing room to make it more like a thriller. I said to myself that it will be good to shape this into a certain type of noir film, like The Maltese Falcon or Double Indemnity. I revisited all these films—like The Big Sleep—and I decided to go in this direction.”
Magnolia Pictures has made a name for themselves distributing good foreign cinema, including the likes of Let the Right One In and I Saw the Devil, as well as Gravity.
What do you think, Wasteoids? Time to see what kind of cinema Romania has to offer these days?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!