A Hijacking - Movie Review

How much is a person’s life worth?  How about an entire crew?  That is what Peter Ludvigsen, the head of a company whose ship has just been hijacked by Somali pirates, must determine in the Danish film A Hijacking.  Directed and written by Tobias Lindholm, this film has won many awards in film festivals around the world, and for good reason.  This film will draw you in, get you to genuinely care about the characters, and keep you tense through the entire ordeal.

One of those characters, Mikkel (Pilou Asbaek), the cook on board the ship, is the only person on the crew who is allowed to have any contact with the outside world, though primarily to help hurry the negotiation of how much the company will pay to get the crew and ship out of the Somali pirates’ hands. 

Much of the action is purposefully left off screen, keeping the audience on edge during this tense thriller.  It is not an action film; we do not even get to see the hijacking take place.  Instead, it is a psychological roller coaster ride as the audience becomes attached to characters that may not make it out alive.

It is painful to watch both Mikkel, who has to suffer through the experience of being held captive for months on end, and Ludvigsen, who becomes emotionally involved in the situation despite being warned that that is the worst thing he could do, make the difficult decision of when to say no and when to say yes to a group of violent men who hold the lives of his crew in their hands.  It is an emotional journey that leaves the audience to wonder what they might do if they were in either of the men’s positions.

How much is a person’s life worth, and who gets to determine that?  This film asks the question in a variety of ways, but ultimately it is left unanswered.