A Hijacking

A Hijacking (2012)

Kapringen

Tensions are high after a Danish freighter is captured and held for ransom by Somali pirates, leading to weeks of high-stakes negotiations – and an escalating potential for explosive violence.

Date of release
2012-02-29
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (309)
Runtime
1h 43m
Genres
Thriller, Drama
Director
Tobias Lindholm

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $2.7M
  • Awards: 2 · Nominations: 0. Including: Bodil Award for Best Danish Film; Robert Award for Best Danish Film

A Hijacking is a 2012 Danish thriller film written and directed by Tobias Lindholm about a ship hijacking. Pilou Asbæk and Søren Malling star as a cook taken hostage and the CEO that attempts to negotiate for his release, respectively. It premiered at the 69th Venice International Film Festival.

Production

Asbæk and Malling were cast before writing began; writer-director Lindholm had worked with them earlier and enjoyed their company. He wanted to write a film about a ship that encounters trouble at sea, but could not think of a good plot. When he read about commercial Danish ships hijacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean, he realized that he could use this situation for his film.

The film was shot on location and used a real ship. The crew of the ship, who worked as extras, had been hijacked in the past, and they contributed details to the script, such as separating the crew. In order to prevent a real-life hijacking, armed guards were hired to protect the production. The pirates were cast in Mombassa, Kenya.

The cast was a mix of professional and first-time actors. During shooting, Lindholm kept Malling, an experienced comedian, off-balance by refusing to allow him to fall back to comedy. Porter is a professional hostage negotiator, originally hired as the film's technical adviser but then offered the part: he had no lines written for him, as Lindholm wanted to make use of his real-life skills.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended