The phrase “whistle while you work” takes on new meaning for a corrupt Bucharest cop as the double- and triple-crosses mount in this tense, witty neo-noir from Romanian New Wave director Corneliu Porumboiu. The obscure whistling language at the heart of the film is the preferred communication method of the Canary Islands gangsters who are Cristi’s (Vlad Ivanov) accomplices. Mastering that code promises the detective rich rewards — in theory, anyway, one that doesn’t account for backstabbing associates, suspicious bosses, a femme fatale with that noirest of names, Gilda (Catrinel Marlon), and Cristi’s well-meaning but interfering mother. Porumboiu hops the globe from La Gomera in the Canary Islands back home to Romania and eventually to Singapore, setting the tone with Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger” blaring over the opening frames. And that, ultimately, is what Cristi is: a passenger aboard a fizzy, deadpan thrill ride in this breezy genre exercise and clever lampooning of official corruption and criminal conspiracy.

In competition for the FIPRESCI Prize