BFI London Film Festival Special — culturefly.co.uk

A sense of déjà vu courses through the veins of Fishing Without Nets. A year after Captain Phillips and A Hijacking turned the cinematic spotlight onto Somali Piracy, Cutter Hodierne attempts to address the same issue, but from the perspective of those who be plundering. Unfortunately, everything he tries to show, we’ve seen before… and we’ve seen it done better. Expanding on his award winning short of the same name, Hodierne focuses his story on Abdi (Abdikani Muktar), a young Somali fisherman struggling to make ends meet due to the pollution-ravaged seas. Hoping to earn enough money to help smuggle himself, his wife, and his child out of the country, Abdi agrees to assist in the highjacking of an oil tanker. However, it isn’t long before he finds himself in over his head.  From the outset, Hodierne’s intentions are quite perceptible. The quiet opening scenes follow behind Abdi as he wonders around the devastated local land. Hodierne’s camera methodically observes the raw reality of the character’s impoverished way of life, which he then underpins with Kevin Hilliard and Patrick Taylor’s effectively brooding score. Later, when Abdi boards the oil tanker, we can clearly see the desperation in his eyes, the inner realisation that he has no other option if he wants to save his family. Throughout, Muktar’s performance is emotionally complex and supremely effective. Like Barkhad Abdi last year, Muktar gives a human voice to the men who commit these acts, but does so in a meticulously restrained way that crucially doesn’t ask the audience for forgiveness.

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