This film was released 8th January 2016, and is no longer screening.

★★★★ RTÉ TEN ★★★★ Entertainment.ie

Mohamed is one of Somalia’s most experienced pirates, but though he might be feared on the high seas, at home he is just another middle-aged man trying to make ends meet in dire economic circumstances.

Blending documentary, restaged sequences and evocative rotoscope-style animation, Last Hijack is an experimental ‘nonfiction narrative’ that gives insight into why pirating is viewed as a viable option for many Somali fishermen.

Through the animated sequences we gain access to Mohamed’s inner world, his hopes, fears and memories, and we come to understand the reasons why he chose this violent path. Co-director Pallotta employed the rotoscoping animation technique in Richard Linklater’s Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, but here the effect is more akin to that achieved in Waltz with Bashir, where the animation gets to parts of the story documentary cannot reach. (Notes by David O’Mahony)

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