The Pirates of Somalia

This based-on-facts movie looks like it's going to be a trashy, violence-filled tale of mayhem, but it turns out to be something quite different, and much better.. It tells the story of Jay Bahadur (played by Evan Peters), a young Canadian who wanted to be a journalist. A chance meeting with a journalist whose writings he greatly admired (a fictitious composite played by Al Pacino) persuaded him that rather than going to journalism school, he should go somewhere dangerous and write about it. He went to Somalia, a country he had researched for a paper he had written in college, and found opportunities to interview the Somalian pirates, which no Westerner had ever done.

It's an exciting story, well told, well acted, and believable. The Somalians in particular are portrayed as three-dimensional characters rather than simply as savages (as they are often portrayed in the media). Yet brutality and ruthlessness are present in their everyday lives as well. Action, suspense, friendship, courage, humor, this movie has it all.

What it does not have, unfortunately, is captioning. Much of the dialogue is difficult to catch, especially the English spoken by the Somalians with their strong African accent. This is a rather serious flaw impairing the enjoyment of an otherwise excellent movie.

This type of docufilm is not my cup of tea as I'm more into the action/tension type films, but I still found it entertaining, informative and a well put together production with great casting, directing, writing and cinematography. Although the pace was too slow for me, still a great watch and thus a 8/10 from me.

The movie was very interesting, it is good to see "Captain Philips" first, but even without it you can see it again. It is a very good movie with very beautiful locations and excellent interpretations, mainly by Barkhad Abdi and Evan Peters. The fact that it is based on a book makes it even more attractive. I highly recommend it.

What a pleasant surprise as I had no expectation of this film being as good as it is. Good storyline based on fact, well cast and good acting. Thoroughly recommend this one.

I found this film to be very intriguing. When I started it, I was expecting a documentary type film on pirates in Somalia made famous by the terrific film "Captain Phillips".

About 10 minutes in, I realized this was going to be a lot more then an action/Drama film on the exploits of Somalian Pirates. What you get in this way better then average movie is a man who yearns to be a published writer/journalist. He tries his hand at some very uninteresting subject matter and then sees the news reports in the Hijacking of the cargo ship "Maersk Alabama" by Somalie pirates and, after some research, that NO Western journalist has ever truly entered the world of Piracy in that region of Africa.

He is Canadian (Evan Peters who plays real life journalist Jay Bahadur) and gets his parents to finance an adventure to a life completely unknown to him in Somalia.

Without giving more of the film away, I can say that the true elements of how Piracy got its start in this poor and almost forgotten African nation and more importantly WHY it happens to this day. It gives the viewer a really different perspective on the story of these proud people who have a history of culture and used to settle disputes with poetry, not violence. I enjoyed the way the protagonist explores the realities and history of the Somalie people rather then exploit the violence often used by the very nature of piracy.

This is a must see for anyone who is interested in the culture and reasons behind why piracy is a way of life for peoples of this region.

A very well done film. Definitely recommend.