
It opens without preamble into the banalities of life on board a commercial freight ship in the midst of the Indian Ocean, observations centring on Mikkel (Johan Philip Asbæk) the cook, and his long-anticipated reunion with his distant wife and child. From there we are removed to the shipping co's Danish HQ, where flinty CEO Peter Ludvigsen (Søren Malling) has both beady eyes set squarely on his operation's bottom line. When Somali pirates board the ship, the crew become the subject of gruelling negotiations between the mercurial Omar, the pirates' broker, and Ludvigsen, who must weigh the advice he receives from his consultant against everything he knows and feels.


That said, A Hijacking is an uncut, unexpected gem, taut and gruelling, a thing well told and simply-executed. I thoroughly recommend it. Available on iTunes.