Last Hijack
by Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting
Mohamed is your average middle-aged man trying to make ends meet in his homeland: the failed state Somalia. He is one of Somalia's most experienced pirates and engaged to a beautiful girl. However her parents are not happy with his profession and demand he quits piracy. Mohamed's parents are also dissaproving and pressure to quit his job is growing from all sides. Far from the romantic figures of movies and literature, piracy is coming under increasing scrutiny from global forces and communities within Somalia. At the same time his family depends on his income from piracy. Mohamed, sensing the end of an era, must decide if he should risk everything and do one last hijack. Through his eyes a dramatic tale about survival in Somalia unfolds; how did Mohamed come to live this brutal and dangerous existence? The Last Hijack is both a feature-length film, combining documentary footage and animation, as well as an online transmedia experience, allowing viewers a unique and original way to explore the story of Somali piracy from different perspectives.
The filmmaking team of Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting is a meeting of true industry pioneers who push the boundaries of storytelling. Tommy first connected Richard Linklater with animation when he produced the award-winning feature film Waking Life. He followed up with Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly, starring Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jr. He then directed the Emmy nominated Collapsus. Femke Wolting co-founded Submarine, a multiple award-winning production company. She produced numerous projects such as Peter Greenaway's feature Rembrandt's J'Accuse, groundbreaking documentaries like My Second Life, and the internationally acclaimed Meet the Fokkens about elder twin prostitutes. Femke has also directed many documentaries, such as Sneakers - about the rise and rise of the sports shoe - and Viktor & Rolf: "Because We Are Worth It"- which followed a year in the lives of avant-garde fashion designers Viktor & Rolf. Currently, Femke is producing Peter Greenaway's next film, Eisenstein in Guanajuato.
TOMMY PALLOTTA'S FILMOGRAPHY:
2010 COLLAPSUS
2009 AMERICAN PRINCE
2006 A SCANNER DARKLY (producer)
2004 AMNESIA MOON
2001 WAKING LIFE
2000 FIGURES OF SPEECH
1999 ROADHEAD
1997 THE HIGH ROAD
FEMKE WOLTING'S FILMOGRAPHY:
2009 ANOTHER PERFECT WORLD
2005 VIKTOR & ROLF: 'BECAUSE WE'RE WORTH IT!'
2004 SNEAKERS
2002 BONANZA - MTV VOORBIJ
2000 IT'S THE END OF TV AS WE KNOW IT
1997 GAMES
1997 ASIAN COOL
1998 BRANDMERKEN
1996 IF YOU WANT IT RIGHT DO IT YOURSELF
Directed by Tommy Pallotta & Femke Wolting
Written by Tommy Pallotta & Femke Wolting
Cinematography by Ahmed Farah
Edited by Edgar Burcksen A.C.E.
Music by Kreidler
Produced by Bruno Felix & Femke Wolting
Co-produced by Nicky Gogan, Gerhard Meixner & Roman Paul, Name Bart Van Langendonck, Jamal Osman, Margje de Koning, Lucia Haslauer, Isa Ostertag, Lucas Schmidt
Format: DCP / 16:9 / 5.1
Length: 83 min.
Original Language: Somali, English