A HIJACKING (KAPRINGEN) New Auteurs

One mistake can mean life or death to the crew on board a Danish ship taken hostage by Somali pirates. In Denmark, the shipping company’s CEO boldly ignores advice from a hostage negotiator and speaks on the phone directly with the pirate’s translator, Omar. Conditions worsen on the claustrophobic ship as the psychological pressure intensifies and months pass while negotiations continue. Shifting from the chaotic conditions onboard to the offices of the Danish shipping company, A HIJACKING skillfully examines the art of bargaining in this fraught, high-pressure drama. Meticulously authentic, the film was shot in the Indian Ocean on a ship that had been hijacked before, using real pirate weapons and casting a real-life hostage negotiator to play himself. Tobias Lindholm’s first solo directing effort succeeds at cultivating a documentary-style realism that hold us in its grip until the very last scene.