If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle

Is not necessarily a bad movie and for a new viewer of Romanian movies could be quite interesting. The problems of the movie are the theme and filming style. I'm sick and tired of Romanian movies filmed from hand to provide reality (if I want reality I open the door or the TV) and also to see movies about low-end society family problems. I don't need to go to cinema and pay to have a better understanding of 5 o'clock TV news. Romania is much more better than it's low life and I hope one day, Romanian movie makers will stop pushing forward the garbage (for other to pity us) and start doing movies to promote us as we really are: beautiful, smart and extremely funny!

A visual artist knows that adding a little dot of light in the iris could change the whole portrait or even ruin the initial intention. Not adding the right dot, could have the same effect. Finding THAT balance, something needed in everything we do! That balance is written all over this movie! One reviewer from Romania is fed up with "movies about low-end society family problems". I don't know if Romanians make only such movies but this one is certainly not about Romania. And here the balance I was talking about becomes clear: a simple, personal tragedy may look unimportant to others but to the one who is tormented by it, it becomes life itself. The whole movie is feeding on this sentence, if I may say so. It dictates the filming and editing style (kudos for editing!), the choice of characters, dialog (probably improvised) and everything else. The movie is quiet (almost no soundtrack, very long minutes of no dialog, long takes) and yet the tension and ugliness of the personal horror could deafen someone. The hand held camera is also barely noticeable (someone was complaining about it), far from a Dogma head ache. This slight shake is a reminder the story is not a studio pose but a live action. The theme could be illustrated in many other ways, and it's been done before, probably because the theme is so human and unfortunately forever recurrent. But what impressed me the most is the movie as a whole. The film maker, if I can make him "responsible" for the result, must be a very elegant man, in terms of manners. A man that doesn't shout out his empathy but presents it on a silver tray. Bravo!

I don't usually write movie reviews, but I was so impressed after watching that I couldn't stand some of the bad reviews that were written here. This movie is indeed not for everyone. But that's the whole point of it and what brings value to it. If you were expecting some afternoon fun maybe you were watching the wrong movie. I don't like all those Romanians who are not confident about their own identity and keep bragging about the Romanian movie "industry". This movie proves that we can still make good movies on a low budget. Even if the storyline may have been a bit exaggerated the director has made an excellent portrait of Romanian prisons and of the drama that goes with it. The "reality" is "straigh in your face" and that's what I was expecting from it. The end is unexpected and fresh.

It's the most interesting film country in Europe at the moment and this has been going on for a couple of years now.

You have seen many movies from youth correctional institutions. The main character here has only a couple of days left, when his mother reluctantly arrives. This changes the film from a movie about a prison to a movie about life conditions and betrayal.

If your existence is destroyed, is it worth the price to have some hours of good life? Even if it's phony? The answer here is yes. A strong film which puts the important questions. Sometimes you must fight desperately to have what you already have.

"Eu cand vreau sa fluier, fluier" (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle) is a complex drama about an inmate(Silviu) at a prison in Romania who is to be released in 15 days, but finds out that his mother just came back from Italy and she wants to take his younger brother there with her. Also she wants to leave in 7 days, a thing which Silviu cannot accept.

The movie is not for everybody and cannot be compared with other movies related to prisons, prisoners or stuff like that. It does not have clever escape plans, surprising events or crazy shootings. What made this movie so successful at Berlin Festival (where it won two awards, including the Silver Bear) was the unique way of directing from Florin Serban, but also the intense drama of the situation which drives Silviu to extreme limits, making him do the most unthinkable things. Also in Silviu's life appears Ana, a young intern who has to make interviews with inmates.

Again, this movie is not for the masses. An average movie viewer today will probably become bored, will think this movie has no point and so on. Due to today's trend in the movie industry, films like these are ignored and labeled as bad movies. Luckily, there are still critics like those from the Berlin Film Festival which can rate a movie to its true value.