X
- 2013
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 43 m
- 2013
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 43 m
Summary After hijacking the crew of a Danish cargo ship, Somali pirates engage in tense and lengthy negotiations with officials in Copenhagen.
Written By: Tobias Lindholm
- 2013
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 43 m
- 2013
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 43 m
A Hijacking
7.2
Where to Watch
Summary After hijacking the crew of a Danish cargo ship, Somali pirates engage in tense and lengthy negotiations with officials in Copenhagen.
Written By: Tobias Lindholm
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
82
96% Positive
25 Reviews
25 Reviews
4% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
82
96% Positive
25 Reviews
25 Reviews
4% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
A Hijacking is Lindholm’s second feature as director; he’s also worked with such austere Danes as Thomas Vinterberg of Dogme 95 fame. What he’s learned, it seems, is how to strip away distractions, and let character become suspense, as well as destiny.
His (Lindholm) steadfast, unvarying gaze has its own authenticity. He’s made a thriller that thrills while also respecting our intelligence.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 45 User Ratings
7.2
69% Positive
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
27% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
4% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 45 User Ratings
7.2
69% Positive
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
27% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
4% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
I saw this in the cinema and it was sickeningly tense and felt very real. It shows the impact on the crew and the executives negotiating for their return, and it was fascinating seeing the business behind a hijacking, on both the hijackers' and the shipping company's sides. A very lean, well constructed film. Superior to the similar film Captain Phillips, which was also good but a little too cliched.
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The suspense is not just carried out between the hijacked ship crew and their captors, but also back at shipping HQ where the CEO declines advice to use an outside negotiator and instead installs himself as the mouthpiece in direct talks with the "translator" of the Somali pirates. It's nail biting stuff.
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While the improvisatory movement of the camera helps create a sense of ambiguous tension in the scenes where the crew interacts with the pirates, it also undercuts several more overtly dramatic moments. However, this shortcoming of filmmaking imagination is largely redeemed by the pessimistic wallop of the movie’s ending.
It’s an unshowy, quietly intense drama with grace notes in every scene — and a hellish punch.
Tobias Lindholm's hostage-negotiation drama that wields its verité style for maximum tension.
A Hijacking’ is gripping in the way the best Danish TV is – in its no-frills authenticity.
Director Lindholm, a graduate of the Dogma school, creates such immense tension without the use of time-watching techniques and other on-screen antics prominent in other hijacking films, in an absorbing and carefully woven thriller that focuses on emotion as seen from the eyes of one victim (the chef) and the CEO of the shipping company. It must also be noted that the very same guy, in the capacity of a screenwriter penned two of my favourite films of 2013, this one and ‘The Hunt’.
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I have traversed the Gulf of Aden twice, the piece of ocean between Yemen and Somalia notorious for it’s pirates. I was somewhat familiar with the methods that pirates use when commandeering ships to demand ransoms, but to appreciate the events of Tobias Lindholm’s A Hijacking no sailing experience is necessary.
Even though the film is a representation of how an actual Hijacking would take place: Quick, precise, and severe, the film spends little time on the mechanics of how the pirates actually board. This is not an action film. We learn that a high-speed boat has approached and boarded effortlessly, that’s it. More important to the film is what happens while the pirates are onboard.
The first thing the pirates do, even before starting negotiations for money, is demand food. The ship’s cook, played brilliantly by Danish actor Pilou Asbaek, becomes the pirate’s gopher, and an ad-hoc negotiator between the pirates and the ship’s owners.
Conditions onboard are miserable. Shocking even. The cook and 2 other crewmen are kept in a small closet for weeks, four other crewmembers below deck. They’re not allowed out to relive themselves in a toilet; they must use a corner of the room. My training on ships did not include images like these. There was no training about how to interact with maniacs with automatic weapons.
The job of casting the actors that play the pirates is ingenious. All the actor’s performances are in the Somali language (I think). Their interactions with the ship’s crew are so authentic that I’m guessing none of these men were trained actors. Probably just local Somali men recruited by the casting director, but I can’t verify this. If they were actors, they’re the best I’ve ever seen.
Contentious negotiations between the ship’s owners and the pirates leave questions. The hijacking ends without incident, almost, but the negotiations take months. Could the ship’s owner have done more? Given in to the pirate’s demands sooner? Gotten the crew home faster? Undoubtedly questions that need to be asked of the real hijackings that take place routinely in the Gulf, where we get little more than a single paragraph in the news about some, and no more.
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Evidemment, ça fait penser à « Capitaine Phillips » mais bien que le sujet soit étrangement semblable, on en est aussi éloigné que possible. Le réalisme prévaut ici face au festival hollywoodien fatigant et très formaté. En outre, le film américain était affublé d’une réalisation abominable en dépit de la prestation éblouissante de Tom Hanks.
Ici, il s’agit d’un film danois fait avec les moyens du bord et qui a tout l’air d’un documentaire à peine déguisé ; la réalisation est souvent maladroite (mais correcte) et les acteurs font ce qu’ils peuvent… Le film n’est pas doublé en français mais cela n’est pas un mal puisque si les Danois parlent danois, l’anglais est la langue internationale, y compris avec les terroristes…
Cependant, le point fort indubitable de Hijacking est de non seulement présenter le point de vue des otages bien entendu mais aussi et surtout celui de la société au Danemark et de son patron, jetés à leur grand dam dans les affres de la négociation avec une bande de sauvages. Seulement conseillé par un professionnel de ce genre d’affaires, le patron et ses collaborateurs -mais surtout le patron- se retrouve plongé dans un tourbillon infernal. La négociation dure des mois et rien n’est jamais garanti… et la pression est colossale, de toutes parts.
Le film est édifiant dans son genre, frappant par son réalisme san ambages et sa conclusion sans strass ni paillettes, très sobre en somme. Il eut fallu plus de moyens et un compromis entre l’agitation hollywoodienne et le caractère si posé du film danois mais même en l’état, Hijacking reste sensiblement préférable à Capitaine Phillips bien qu’il reste trop documentaire et carrément trop mollasson.
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This one reminded me quite a lot of Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks. In that one The American Navy showed up and shot the Afrikaners dead but in this one, well I thought there should have been some Military interest, I don't think the film was based on a True Story like the Hanks movie was.
It's on Netflix Streaming and I thought it was a good film, not boring at all ...
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A drama movie can be saved by a good cinematography, a good plot or even good acting, this movie is below average on all.
I'm European and it doesn't hurt me to say our movies are quite inferior on many levels to the american ones. 'A Hijacking' is a perfect example.
Plot/Story 3
Fails completely to make the viewer empathize with the situation, the time passage is very poorly organized. If for some reason you are not paying much attention to the movie timeline, you will feel like a week as passed, when in fact it was months, and this is bad since this movie is essentially about the drama of time passage in a hijacking situation.
The characters are like empty shells where "random" drama was inserted, they fail to make the viewer empathize with their problems.
Acting 4
Most of the time the acting was below average, sometimes with very bad acting.
Cinematography 3
Nothing interesting in it, it didn't gave a sense of anything, it added nothing to the movie.
A drama that fails at being dramatic, a suspense that isn't suspenseful, it's just a story, its up to you if you want to hear it or not.
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Production Company
Nordisk Film
Release Date Jun 21, 2013
Duration 1 h 43 m
Rating R
Awards
Danish Film Awards (Robert)
• 5 Wins & 13 Nominations
Bodil Awards
• 1 Win & 4 Nominations
Ole Awards
• 3 Wins & 3 Nominations