A Hijacking

Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm is steadily making a name for himself; daring filmmaker not afraid to take chances and it pays off in this one.

Kapringen (A Hijacking) is sort of the antithesis of a Hollywood hostage drama devoid of tired clichés and the predictable story lines we -- as an audience of generational film-goers -- have become too accustomed to.

It features an incredibly in-depth character study from the two main characters: a chef aboard the hijacked ship and the CEO of the shipping company remotely negotiating with the Somali pirates dealing with the incredible pressure and moral dilemmas of the situation. Also the supporting characters are depicted with great nuances such as sympathy and even humanity.

The plot is tight and flows nicely as does the tempo of the film. Cinematography beautifully emphasizes the realism and atmosphere of the film, and even the score is wonderfully understated yet fully appropriate.

One of the most suspenseful films of the year, no doubt, perhaps it embodies everything that Argo should have been about.

As a side note, the person who gave this a horrible review also gave The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2009) a perfect 10/10 (go ahead and click his other reviews if you don't believe me). Take from that what you will.

A highly recommendable film for great acting, directing and general storytelling. Bravo.

An act of piracy brings together 3 different worlds.

1. The pirates. People who live in extreme poverty and see no benefit from the world trade that profits buyers or sellers of cargo and of course ship-owners and recruit fellow famished locals telling them that there's money in attacking these big ships.

2. The sailors. Those who spent up to months a time at sea as cargo is carried from A to B, with no skills in dealing with hostile invaders on board.

3. The ship management company. The people who either own the vessel in question or run it on behalf of the owner.

Pirates expect owners to dig deep in their pockets and by an unexpected takeover of a vessel as well as convincing the crew that they will die, the pirates hope that the owners would give in to their demands.

The owners, as it has become clear in this film, being all suited and booted and speaking from a comfortable corporate environment are trying to bargain with the pirates. Bargaining is all they do; they bargain with shipyards, charterers, insurers etc. Without discounting for a minute that they must bargain otherwise the demands will balloon out of proportion, they are unaware of the strain the crew are going through.

Interesting stimulating and highly watchable this is an interesting documentary that adds to one's perspective on a matter very known, but not acted upon although it should be pointed out that piracy and poverty go hand in hand. If world authorities want to act on piracy, they must act on poverty first.

There is something very unique in the way Scandinavian directors and scriptwriters build a story. Realism is always a core element in their plots, irrespective of the genre, unlike films from other parts of the world.

Tobias Lindholm's Kapringen (A Hijacking) is one such film.

At first glance, it will definitely remind you of Captain Phillips because the theme revolves around a vessel hijacking by a group of Somali Pirates. However, the resemblance ends here. Although the Maersk Alabama Hijacking (basis for Capt. Phillips) unfolded in a typical Hollywood manner in real life, most vessel hijackings are quite the opposite. Tobias masterfully captures the scenes behind such a hijacking – the lives of the sailors held in captivity, sandwiched between merciless pirates and their stubborn company officials who refuse to let the pirates dictate terms.

The movie is indeed a lesson in negotiation and crisis management. It is also a disturbing account of how corporates weigh their balance sheet more than the lives of their own men, who spent months in hostile waters, away from their loved ones.

The actors do justice to their roles and put in credible performances. However, the show stealer is Tobias's well written script (I read that he has also penned 'The Hunt', which is in race for the Best Oscar for Foreign film). The negotiation scenes are shot with such realism that it will remind you of one of those boardroom conference calls in your office. I also read in one of the forums that the phone calls were actually made between Denmark and Somalia, so that the voice quality remains poor (with a slight echo) as anybody would experience over a long distance call.

Unlike Captain Phillips, Kapringen will definitely leave you devastated and in agony over decisions and actions that could have otherwise altered the outcome. In the end, they were all greedy; some for money, others for mere survival.

To me, the movie is a tribute to those countless sailors and their everyday struggle, far away from home, and everything they truly love. A must watch.

Verdict: 7.5/10

"A Hijacking" features excellent performances from two protagonists, delivered in an unflinching fashion that lays out the scenario, and simply allows the raw emotions to transpire on their own. The timing of the release on Blu-Ray coincides with the theatrical release of "Captain Phillips," which stars Tom Hanks and directed by Paul Greengrass. The films both tell the same story of cargo freighters hijacked by Somali pirates who seek millions in ransom. Aside from the similar subject matter however, the two films could not be any more different. "Captain Phillips" is an appealing action thriller concerned with presenting a satisfying, pulse-pounding conclusion for its audience. "A Hijacking" is a tense, grounded-in-reality based drama without the sense of comfort of a predetermined finale.

A Danish cargo ship named the "MV Rozen" is en route to Mumbai when Somali renegades gain control of the vessel and demand millions for the return of the ship's seven-man crew. Negotiations ensue between the corporate office and the pirates that follow the give-and-take of everyday business deals, with one important difference. In this case, the goods are human beings. Shot with hand-held cameras, the movie cross-cuts between two perspectives: the captured vessel's cook Mikkel Hartmann (Pilou Asbæk), and the maritime company's hands-on CEO Peter Ludvigsen (Søren Malling).

At the outset, the two characters share a common interest, but as the bartering drags on for months, the uncertainty of an outcome takes these two men in very different directions. Danish director/writer Tobias Lindholm perfectly balances the dual psyche of the captive Mikkel and corporate CEO Peter, two psychologically exhausted protagonists in remarkably different ways. A tense, slowly unwinding ticking-clock drama this may be, but the film is as much a character study, both the powerful and the subordinate, existing under extreme duress with life or death consequences attached to their decisions.

The film isn't a white knuckle ride and the pacing is slow at times, but this is one of the cases where that's exactly the point. Lindholm's account of a contemporary piracy situation doesn't offer the commercial appeal of "Captain Phillips," but it is nonetheless completely engaging and riveting material. There could have been several predictable avenues taken by Lindholm when telling this harrowing tale of survival and perseverance, but instead he charts into unexpected territory, and delivers real drama.

Unbearably tense and anti-aesthetic.

For his second directorial feature, Tobias Lindholm (co-writer of Jagten) delivers the kind of indifferent, matter-of-fact realism not experienced since the early days of Dogme 95. And because it cuts through all the fluff and artifice that has invaded commercial films without compromising momentum as a situationist thriller, one must concede that Kapringen has upped the ante on Danish rebellion against the Hollywood system.

The refusal to include actual scenes of the hijacking in a film specifically titled "A Hijacking" is no accident.

A cargo ship MV Rozen is hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. Among the eight men crew taken hostage is Mikkel (Pilou Asbæk), the ship's cook. A translator for the pirates issues demand for $15M in exchange for release. But back in Copenhagen, CEO of the shipping company Peter (Søren Malling) learns that gaining the upper hand demands patience. And so negotiations play out in silence like a sociopathic Fischer-Spassky game: cold, calculated, unyielding.

I can't think of any movie in which I have wanted so much to resist and cease watching, yet fail to do so because it has a quality so raw, unsympathetic and intuitive. In keeping with Lindholm's debut feature (a prison drama "R"); Kapringen is filmed on location, in chronological sequence and on board a sea freighter that was hijacked in the Indian ocean. Casting also features a real life hostage negotiator as the central figure and naturally, Somali pirates.

Arguably, mechanical reproduction of genuine conditions doesn't guarantee a convincing film but in this case, it does — Kapringen looks so suitably stained with normality that one instantly recognizes the absence of gimmicky aesthetics. Unmanipulated (or to be PC about words, "seemingly so"), you resonate with the film's fabric of reality while searching for something more, and in the process, gain access into psychological domains that underpin both Peter and Mikkel.

It's not for nothing that Lindholm went through great lengths to replicate an uncomfortable, pressing scenario because the film offers reflection on an overlooked form of terrorism. Corporations may be showing it to employees as a resource on how to respond during such crises, but Kapringen's master stroke — is the revelation of an impasse between the moral versus the practical. There is no payoff at the end of this film, it is one the most sophisticated vérités I have seen, the meta-argument leaves you deliberating, and the film takes off like a thinker on paradox.

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