A coolly assured nail-biter from Denmark, “A Hijacking” takes a story we’re familiar with from international headlines — Somali pirates storming commercial vessels and holding their crews for ransom — and turns it into high-stakes human poker. It’s the second feature from the young writer-director Tobias Lindholm, and it showcases his gift for tightly focused stories told without an ounce of fat.
After a Danish ship is boarded, a young galley cook (Pilou Asbaek, immensely appealing) is forced to become the liaison between the pirates’ negotiator (Abdihakin Asgar) and the shipping company’s cool shark of a CEO (Soren Malling). The movie spreads over 134 days but is never less than riveting, and Lindholm lets the larger political implications rise naturally from the suspense. Full story for BostonGlobe.com subscribers.
Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com.
