IFFBoston: A Hijacking Review

By David Braga / May 1, 2013

rating: 3.5

Midway through the week that is the Independent Film Festival Boston, one films producer laid out the nature of modern cinema to me like as such: there are Danish films, and then theres everything else. A Hijacking isnt the best Denmark has to offer, but it does act as a showcase for the type of tough, emotionally intense films that the country is known for. Presenting a dual story of a ship hijacked by Somalian pirates and the company members trying to negotiate their release, A Hijacking is a tense, grim look at how the crisis affects those on board as well as those back home. The dichotomy between the ever worsening conditions on the ship and the clean, sanitary (though still intense) environment of the corporate negotiating room continually jar us, especially as one gets worse and then other, at least in terms of appearance, stays the same. On the ship, our main focus is Mikkel, the vessel's cook, whos constantly threatened and used for negotiations with corporate office. The leader of those negotiations is Peter, the company CEO who decides against hiring a third party negotiator because he feels he can do the job himself. Much of A Hijacking focuses on how these two men are beaten down by the conditions around them. Mikkel is pushed ever closer to a breaking point, confident that those in charge of securing his return arent interested; Peter, always calm and collected, feels the noose constricting as he wonders if hes gotten in over his head and will end up losing the ship and its crew. At times, the fact that each of these stories are so built up actually hurts the film. We jump from one into another for long stretches of time, so that when we move back to another story, we have to readjust and reinvest in those particular characters. Each is well crafted, but constantly moving between them hurts rather than helps the film in the long run. Of the two, Peters storyline in the negotiation room is the more interesting, if only because we havent seen it before. Here we see a man having to constantly check his emotions and do what is necessary, not what he feels is right. He knows that his hardline negotiating may turn the crew against him, feeling as if theyve been abandoned, but he also knows its the only way to get them back alive. He has to constantly convince himself that it isnt personal, only business. When the film does reach its climax, its appropriately understated, not dressed up or stylized (like Argos runway chase, for example). Instead, we get a cold, haunting reality of how these men have been affected, and how that trauma will follow them long after the events themselves are over. A Hijacking looks into the emotional void and sees how men can be broken beyond repair, how doing the right thing can still feel wrong, and how theres no coming back from certain events. Some people stay captives forever.