La Gomera | In the Canary Islands!

The unpredictable, fast-paced, ever-changing genre disguises “La Gomera” keys and confuses scripted tropes, like an exceptionally clever runaway. The criminal comedy directed by Corneliu Porumboiu surprises with its ingenuity, entertains with absurd humor and, above all, proves that anyone who takes himself deadly seriously is simply ridiculous.

The champion of the Romanian New Wave takes us on a serious vacation, and not just anywhere, but to Gomera, one of the Canary Islands. This is where a corrupt, gloomy Bucharest cop (Vlad Ivanov) comes in to learn the secret local whistling language, el silbo. Thanks to him, Cristi can get along with the mafia and plan a kidnapping, whistling for police wiretaps. Romanian teachers are a local gangster and a mysterious, dark-haired femme fatale (Catrinel Marlon), who could not be missing in a story that masterfully spices up the mixture of crime, comedy, heist movie and western with a handful of brilliant references to noir films. After all, it is women who pull the strings of this unusual tale of policemen and thieves.

“La Gomera” cleverly builds a comedy about a cynical cop embroiled in a double (or only?) game, using numerous references to it. And at the same time, associated with the series “Ocean's”, bravely juggling quotes from the masterpieces of Hitchcock, Hawks and Ford; referencing “Gilda” with Rita Hayworth, but also famous paintings by Edward Hopper; the film Porumboiu is a praise of its own language. One where you can tell about the world without resorting to clichés, and in which humor exposes the seriousness of all structures and institutions — be it the ritualistic mafia, the bureaucracy-dependent police, or the blindly duplicating genre precepts of Hollywood.