IFI Leads Piracy Panel For 'A Hijacking'

To celebrate the Irish release of Danish film A Hijacking, the Irish Film Institute has organised a special evening of discussion and debate, with a panel made up of people with real-life hostage experiences.
A Hijacking is the new film by writer-director Tobias Lindholm, who previously scripted 2012’s The Hunt and has written several episodes of the internationally acclaimed Borgen with Pilou Asbæk (Borgen), Søren Malling (Borgen) and Dar Salim (Game of Thrones) in leading roles.
The story contrasts the experience of Pilou Asbæk’s sympathetic, kidnapped cook sweating it out alongside his fellow crew members on board the ship with Søren Malling’s no-nonsense CEO understandably trying to resist giving in to the demands of the hijackers.
Maritime Piracy experts and real-life hostage will be discussing their experiences by way of introduction to the film's Irish premiere on Friday 17 May.
Joining the panel will be former hostage Chirag Bahri, a Marine Engineer whose world was turned upside down when his vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates for 8 months in 2010 and who has since devoted his career to seafarer welfare; Gary Porter, an ex-services Corporate Security Manager for Clipper Group who has worked on resolving real-life hijacking situations and appears in A Hijacking as a negotiator; John Toner, President of the Irish Chamber of Shipping and Mark Cameron of Ardmore Shipping in Cork, who had one of their vessels boarded in 2010.
The panel will discuss maritime piracy, ongoing security concerns, the psychological impacts on victims and their families plus the economic effects on a major international industry.
It will take place after the 18.30 screening at the IFI in Temple Bar, led by Newstalk’s Philip Molloy, film correspondent with The Right Hook on Newstalk Radio for the past 11 years and currently presenter of the weekly movie programme, The Picture Show.
www.ifi.ie
(IT/CD)