''The Pirates of Somalia'' (or simply ''Pirates of Somalia'' in the UK) is a 2017 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by

Bryan Buckley Bryan Buckley is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and two-time Academy Awards, Academy Award nominated director. His successful career has led to him being dubbed the "King of the Super Bowl". Buckley's directorial debut came with ...

, and based on the 2011 book of the same name. The film stars

Evan Peters Evan Thomas Peters (born January 20, 1987) is an American actor. He is known for his multiple roles on the FX anthology series '' American Horror Story''; as Detective Colin Zabel in the HBO crime drama limited series '' Mare of Easttown'', w ...

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...

Melanie Griffith Melanie Richards Griffith (born August 9, 1957) is an American actress. She began her career in the 1970s, appearing in several independent thriller films before achieving mainstream success in the mid-1980s. Born in Manhattan, New York City, ...

, and Barkhad Abdi. The film had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

on April 27, 2017. The film was released on December 8, 2017, by

Echo Bridge Echo Bridge is a historic masonry bridge spanning the Charles River between Needham to Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts, and Ellis Street in Newton. The bridge carries the Sudbury Aqueduct and foot traffic, and is located in the Hemlock Gorge R ...

Plot

After his graduation from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, journalist Jay Bahadur in vain tries to gain a foothold in the profession. Still living with his parents, he keeps himself afloat with unsatisfactory activity as a questioner for product placing in supermarkets. A chance appears when his journalistic idol Seymour Tolbin inspires him to realize his dream of journalism not in a conventional way through a post-graduate university education, but through an exciting mission to investigate the backgrounds of piracy in Somalia. Bahadur secures support from local people and flies to the civil war-torn country. Through his translator Abdi, he manages to establish contacts with the local Somali pirates and to interview them. He gets increasingly interested in studying an organization of Somali pirates. In order to fulfill this dream, Bahadur continues his investigation, finding himself more and more in danger, and is eventually carried along by the maelstrom of events.

Cast

Jay Bahadur Jay Bahadur (born 1984) is a Canadian journalist and author. He became known for his reporting on piracy in Somalia, writing for ''The New York Times'', ''The Financial Post'', ''The Globe and Mail'', and ''The Times'' of London. Bahadur has als ...

as Seymour Tolbin *

as Maria Bahadur * Barkhad Abdi as Abdi *Aidan Whytock as Agent Brice *Kiana Madani as Tracy Ziconni *

Philip Ettinger Philip Ettinger is an American actor who first gained attention for his supporting role as the troubled environmental activist, Michael, in Paul Schrader's '' First Reformed'' (2017). Other significant roles have been as Garrett Drimmer in the C ...

as Alex *Darron Meyer as Mitch Kelp *Russell Posner as Jared Bahadur *Armaan Haggio as Mohamad Farole Jr. *Jojo Gonzalez as Jojo *Maria Vos as Avril Benoît *Sabrina Hassan as Maryan *Mohamed Barre as Boyah *Abdi Sidow Farah as Colonel Omar

Production

On October 20, 2015, it was announced

would direct the film, with

joining the cast. On February 11, 2016,

and Barkhad Abdi joined the cast of the film.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began in February 2016, and ended on April 24, 2016.

Release and reception

The film had its world premiere at the

on April 27, 2017. Shortly after,

acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, and set it for a December 8, 2017, release. The film received generally mixed reviews. It currently holds a 67% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

and a 54% rating on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pirates Of Somalia 2017 films 2017 drama films American drama films Pirate films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films Films about journalists Films set in Somalia