LAST HIJACK (Tommy Pallotta & Femke Wolting, 2014)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Sunday, September 28, 1:30 (interactive) and 8:00 (regular screening)
Festival runs September 25 – October 12
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.com
www.lasthijack.com
Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting personalize the story of a real-life Somali pirate in the surprisingly intimate and moving Last Hijack. “I want to go back to the ocean once again, take one last ship, and use the money to build a house for my family,” Mohamed narrates as he puts together a small team to pull off a hijack that they hope will make them rich. After that, Mohamed is planning to settle down with his fiancée, Muna, who, along with her parents, is trying to convince him to give up piracy immediately. But Mohamed is determined to make one final score. Cutting-edge filmmakers Pallotta (a producer on such innovative films as Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life and director of the documentary American Prince) and Wolting (a producer of Peter Greenaway’s Rembrandt’s J’Accuse and director of such nonfiction films as Another Perfect World, about 3D gaming, and Sneakers, about the cultural aspects of the sports shoe) gain remarkable access as Mohamed and his cohorts speak openly about their criminal activities and test their weaponry. Pallotta and Wolting cut between the nonfiction narrative and animated scenes that go on inside Mohamed’s head, where he transforms into a large bird that flies through the air and can simply just pick up the target ship with his claws. But life is not that easy, as Mohamed already knows. In the film, Pallotta and Wolting reveal the other side of the story, the one not shown in Captain Phillips or Stolen Seas, told from the point of view of the Somali pirates themselves; the codirectors don’t demonize Mohamed, nor do they turn him into some kind of folk hero. Instead, he’s just a man who needs to make what might turn out to be the most important decision of his life. The eighty-three-minute documentary version of Last Hijack is screening in the Convergence section of the New York Film Festival on September 28 at 8:00; earlier that day, at 1:30, the hour-long interactive “Online Experience” will take place, with Pallotta and Wolting incorporating data visualization, audio, and more animation and live footage to immerse the audience in the tale from multiple perspectives.