My
second favourite film at MIFF last year was Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Hunt” and
the co-writer of that amazing film was a guy named Tobias Lindholm who just
happens to be the director behind “A Hijacking”, which is an incredibly
realistic look at the hijacking of a Danish freighter and the months long
negotiations with the Somali pirates to secure the captured crew’s release.
While
the film is told in a very manner-of-fact way, I found “A Hijacking” quite a
riveting experience and I especially appreciated the film’s lack of
sensationalism. This is not the kind of
film where you have Bruce Willis being sent in to lay waste to all the pirates
in an attempt to save everyone, rather this is a very real and honest account
of what a hijacking must be like and how emotionally straining it is to
everyone involved.
The
first thing that really stuck in my mind (and shocked me) was just how long the
crew are actually help captive for.
Negotiations to secure the crews release (in exchange for a rather large
sum of money) go well over 130 days. The
film mainly focuses on three people and their roles in the negotiations, as
well as the toll it is taking on them all.
We are initially introduced to one of the crew members on the freighter
as he is calling his wife to inform her that he will finally be home soon. He is Mikkel and he is the cook on board the
ship, and it is obvious that he has been away from his family for quite a while. We also learn that he has a young daughter
whose birthday is coming up very soon, but Mikkel will happily make it home for
that. We are next introduced to Peter
who is the CEO of the company who owns the freight about to be hijacked. When we first meet him, he is in the middle
of a fierce negotiation with some Japanese businessman, millions away from
where they want to be. A simple cut and
three hours later, we find that Peter has successfully talked down the Japanese
to less than they were willing to go. He
is obviously very good at his job and he knows it, walking around with a coldness
and an air of arrogance about him.
However in mere minutes, his world is about to turned on its head. After word has got out that their freighter
has been hijacked, we are introduced to our third main character, who’s named
Omar. Omar is the translator /
interpreter / negotiator for the Somali pirates, but is quick to point out he
is not one of them (and takes serious offense if treated like one). From conversations that he has with Peter, we
learn that he too appears to be held against his will and will not be returned
to his family until a successful deal has been struck. He claims to have a wife and children of his
own but this is never verified.
So while
there are a number of characters in the film, the hostage crisis is basically
played through these three characters.
What I liked most about “A Hijacking” is the psychological aspects to it
all, from all perspectives. From those
on board, knowing they could be killed at any second and yet having to live for
months on end with their captors. There
is a truly fantastic sequence (the film’s best) when the pirates and hostages
celebrate after Mikkel catches a large fish.
It is the one moment in the film when both captors and hostages drop
their titles and share an emotion together due to a common goal: to eat fresh
fish that night. It is a stunning scene.
Originally
I was really angry with Peter and his boardroom tactics he uses whilst trying
to free the hostages because to him it just seemed like another negotiation for
him to master; he does it all in such a cold manner. It felt like he was more worried about his
business than his staff on the ship.
However as the negotiations intensify and he begins to realize that he
is responsible for the lives on the ship, you can see the intense strain on the
man. At one stage he viciously lashes
out at his wife, who obviously doesn’t understand what her husband is going
through, when she is talking about the mundane things in life as if they were
important. These are views he would
normally share with his wife if he wasn’t dealing with what he is in the moment,
and it is a very clear sign that Peter has become emotionally involved with the
negotiations. In fact by the end of the
film, I felt most for Peter who not only had the stress of keeping his staff
alive and bringing them home safely, but at the same time keeping his board
members satisfied by not offering too much money to the pirates.
Speaking
of the pirates, I was really impressed with the way that they were
portrayed. There is no doubt that these
men are very dangerous and mean what they say, but they are also men who are
poor and desperate and in a weird way, they are extremely professional. That is the strangest thing about this
hijacking; it really does play out like a high stakes business deal. One key piece of dialogue that I thought was
very revealing in regards to the pirates is when the special ops guy tells
Peter that “we can’t rush these guys.
Time is a Western thing. It means
nothing to them”, indicating that they well take as long as it takes to secure
what they want.
The two
performances from Soren Malling as Peter and Pilou Asbaek as Mikkel are just
stellar. Like everything else in the
movie, they are so naturalistic and very real and both do a fantastic job of
portraying the increasing stress each is facing, which are both so
different. Mikkel, who as cook is right
in the middle of the hijacking at all times, has to face the fear on a daily
basis that this day could very well be his last and you can feel the weight of
this getting heavier as each day passes.
Not to ruin anything, but the fragile shell of a man Mikkel is at the
end of the film is a far cry from who he was at the start. While the ordeal may end, the ramifications from
it will never be over. Asbaek has an
amazing scene three quarters through the film when Omar hangs up on Mikkel’s
wife, causing the normally placid man to explode into a rage like a wild
animal. All of the pent up emotion that
has been bottled throughout this ordeal is let out in this wild display. Meanwhile the stress that Malling displays as
Peter is of a different nature entirely, as it is a lot less pronounced and
more insular in nature, but it is no less effective. It is like Peter ages ten years right before
our eyes during the negotiations, as the stress of being responsible weighs
heavily.
Overall,
I really enjoyed “A Hijacking” a hell of a lot, mainly due to how seriously it
took its subject matter. Due to the
reality of the situation (people waiting around for months on end while
negotiating terms), you wouldn’t call it an exciting film, but because of how
real everything feels, there is no doubt that it is a very good one. I do think that the film makes a miss-step
right at the end of the film in an attempt for some extra (and unneeded) emotion,
but this minor hiccup doesn’t come close to destroying all the good that has
come before it.
3.5 Stars.
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