Les Derniers Siffleurs de la Gomera
Marc Jampolsky
1999 - 52 min - Betacam SP - Couleur - France

Silbo is a true whistled language used in the Canaries on the island of La Gomera. Practiced by the first inhabitants of the island – which has been a Spanish possession since the conquest of the Canaries in the 15th century – and perpetuated by the local shepherds, it enables communication between mountains miles apart and is the only language of its kind in the world today.
A handful of shepherds continue to use this way of communicating. From habit or nostalgia, they whistle from one sheep farm to the next, carrying on a technique, grammar and vocabulary handed down orally for centuries. They have a vast fund of stories and anecdotes about their daily life and their struggle against Francoism – silbo was the language of the resistance at that time.
But today, the whistled language of la Gomera is threatened by progress : changes in lifestyle, the disappearance of traditions, the development of tourism and the appearance of the telephone...
The shepherds' whistling is becoming increasingly rare.