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Film starts at 0:11. How much do we really know about Somali piracy? Several compelling stories from the world of piracy lend a new and unique perspective on this issue. Flimmer Film AS has managed to get on board the KNM Fritjof Nansen during the three first weeks of their six-month mission, operating as an on-board camera team.
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© 2010, Licensed by First Hand Films
This synopsis is written while on board, after having had three encounters with Somali pirates, and several interceptions of suspected skiffs. Compared to other military vessels in the EU and NATO forces in the Bay of Aden, the Fritjof Nansen is regularly involved with such skirmishes. We have also acquired exclusive rights to rare footage from a real-life hostage situation. The well-known pirate incident on the Russian MV Faina was filmed with a hidden mobile phone, smuggled in by one of the crew members’ underwear.
Piracy is large-scale theft, but when risk hits one of the aortas of global shipping trade, the Somalian pirates aren’t the only ones making big bucks. Huge investments and expensive cargoes are at stake. We show you how the piracy capital of the world is not necessarily Eyl in Somalia, but just as much London. Here, we find insurance companies, lawyers, specialized negotiators and professional ransom handlers. It’s all big business, and these surrounding industries are arguably even more lucrative than the Somalian pirates' activities themselves.
Shipping companies that are wary of the EU and reluctant to cash out the extra insurance premiums might make other, more controversial arrangements: security companies are now also making inlets into the industry. Here, we see footage from a secret training camp of one such company. The bill for this growing, lucrative pirate industry? The shipping companies pass the cost increases onto customers, with insurance companies following suit. Everyone else seems to win; the pirates, the navy, the lawyers, the insurance companies and maybe even the shipping companies – all but normal people and, of course, a few sailors.