Tobias Lindholm's A Hijacking is the first of two Somali pirate films coming out this year. When Lindholm heard that Paul Greengrass was making Captain Phillips (a biopic about an American cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009) he kind of hurried up this film not to be the cheap Danish version.
However, Greengrass' 9/11 film titled United 93 reportedly served as inspiration for Lindholm's sophomore directorial effort, specifically in light of its visual style.
Pilou Asbæk (TV series Borgen, penned by Lindholm) stars as the cook on a Danish frigate boarded by machine-gun toting Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. Amongst the men on board is the engineer Jan (Roland Møller – R: Hit First, Hit Hardest), who along with the rest of the seamen are taken hostage in a cynical game of life and death.
Another Borgen star, Søren Malling plays the shipping company's CEO who leads negotiations with the pirates and struggles to cope with the pressure. Sadly, there are no Hollywood inspired heroics that will save the day. Real tension underlies the every scene especially when the cast arrive at times of uneasy ‘truces'.
Check out a new clip from A Hijacking – a tense, chilling drama that follows the emotional journeys of a ship's crew.
A Hijacking has been released in UK on May 10th with its US release date set for June June 21st, 2013.
