FlashCallahan A cargo ship is heading for harbour, when it is hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. Amongst the men on board are the ship's cook Mikkel and the engineer Jan, who along with the rest of the crew are taken hostage. With the demand for millions of dollars, a psychological feud unfolds between the CEO of the shipping company and the Somali pirates.....One cannot help but compare this to Captain Phillips if you had seen the Tom Hanks movie first, which many did, because here in the UK, this movie had only a small release.But while Phillips is a remarkable piece of work, this movie is a more realistic interpretation of the tension that transpire from the two different cultures.On the ship, the story is told from the point of view of the cook, and this is the only major flaw of the movie, the opening sees him talking to his family via telecom, so you will instantly know he will be the focus.Surprisingly though,the film is at its most intense in the board room, with the CEO being pressured not just by his peers to get results, but having to comfort family members whilst dealing with the interpreter/leader of the pirates.When the two focus point finally cross paths on the phone, this is when the film is at its most tense, as you can almost feel the CEOs despair,a t being slightly arrogant with the pirates.A Hijacking is a well told story, using elements of hostage myths such as Stockholm syndrome and bargaining, all the while holding that gripping sense of dread and coldness right until the end.

l_rawjalaurence Based on real-life events, Tobias Lindholm's drama focuses on the consequences of a hijacking of a Danish cargo ship bound for India by Somali pirates. What sets it apart from other hijacking films is its focus on the delicate negotiations between the pirates, their mediator Omar (Abdihakin Asgar), and Peter Ludvigsen, the CEO of the cargo ship company (Soren Malling) back in Copenhagen. We understand the delicate bargaining process; how the pirates are quite prepared to sit it out until they achieve what they want, and how it is imperative that Peter should keep control of his emotions. To do otherwise would be to cede the advantage to the pirates. In several sequences of unbearable tension in the situation room in Copenhagen, we watch Peter being advised by hijacking specialist Connor Julian (Gary Skjoldmose Porter), while struggling to maintain his calm. Meanwhile, back on the cargo ship, director Lindholm shows how the hijacking affects the crew, especially ship's cook Mikkel Hartmann (Pilou Asbæk). Eventually he almost cracks up under the strain, as he is shown cowering in a corner, unable to move or speak. Even when he is finally restored to his family, he can hardly raise a smile. THE HIJACKING is an intense film: Lindholm's camera focuses relentlessly on the characters' facial expressions. A gesture, or even a blink of an eye, denotes a change of emotion. The performances are uniformly excellent - especially Malling, who is shown at the end getting into his car and driving off. This is something he might do on any normal day, but this time he walks in silence, staring blankly into space; not exactly ruined, but profoundly scarred by the experience.

evanston_dad Who knew that Somali pirates would provide such rich subject matter for filmmakers in 2013? "A Hijacking" will invariably be compared to "Captain Phillips" if for no other reason than it came out in the same year and is about a cargo ship being hijacked by Somali pirates. But they're two very different movies about two different scenarios, so I'm not sure comparing them makes much sense. However, if absolutely forced to choose, I think I would pick "A Hijacking" as the film I enjoyed more."Captain Phillips" is all about the logistics of stalling to allow time for military intervention. It's at heart a straightforward action movie, with some emotional resonance late in the film to give it some ballast. "A Hijacking" is more about the emotional and psychological toll the situation takes on the film's key players, namely the cook, Mikkel, one of the hostages on board the ship, and Peter, the CEO of the company that owns the ship, on land. Peter is determined to handle the situation himself, despite warnings from the hostage negotiator not to get involved. It will get too messy and emotional, he's told, which ends up being true, and which takes a severe psychological toll on him. The same is true for the crew, Mikkel included, who must live as hostages for months never sure from one moment to the next whether or not they will survive.The company's response to the hostage crisis is baffling to American viewers. Where in the world is the presence of any kind of military authority? Why on earth would Denmark sanction this kind of bargaining with pirates? It only encourages them to repeat their behavior. The film is comical in a morbid kind of way -- by the end, the CEO and the contact man for the pirates are exchanging faxes to negotiate an agreed upon ransom while the men on the boat rot. For all of the criticism it takes for its military bluster, it's hard to argue that the American way of dealing with such a situation isn't the better one.A tense, finely-acted movie that, because of an incident that occurs very late in the film, may just take the wind out of you.Grade: A

DopamineNL Kapringen ('A hijacking') is the directorial debut of Tobias Lindholm, who also wrote the script and previously wrote Jagten. It shows. The film has the same strong psychological tension without much physical action, the same combination which made Jagten such a strong film.The story is that of a Danish freighter being hijacked by Somali pirates, and the negotiations that follow.Half the film takes place on the ship, truly capturing the cramped pressure the crew is in, who do not even know if the others on the same ship are OK and are hardly able to communicate with their Somali captors. The other half takes place around the negotiation team in Denmark, where the company's CEO experiences a whole different kind of stress and pressure while handling the uncertainties that come with dealing with foreign demands over a crappy and intermittent phone line.Kapringen is not a thriller, it's a very emphatic observation. Which is so much harder to make and more impressive to watch!