http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/arts/fishing-without-nets-a-piracy-tale-by-cutter-hodierne.html 2014-10-03 01:24:21 ‘Fishing Without Nets,’ a Piracy Tale, by Cutter Hodierne In “Fishing Without Nets,” a Somali fisherman becomes an accomplice in the capture of an oil tanker. === FISHING WITHOUT NETS Opens on Friday Directed by Cutter Hodierne In Somali, with English subtitles 1 hour 49 minutes Executed with considerably more polish than the crime at its center, While not entirely realized, the empathetic goals of its director, Cutter Hodierne (expanding his 2012 short film of the same title), are furthered by a visual style that prioritizes context and character over violence and thrills. Our gentle surrogate is Abdi (Abdikani Muktar), a Somali fisherman with nothing to catch and a wife and a child to feed. But when he becomes a reluctant accomplice to the capture of a battered French oil tanker, and forms a fragile bond with a frightened crew member (Reda Kateb), Abdi is as discomfited as a lamb among wolves. Shot in East Africa, with much of the dialogue improvised by Somali-speaking Kenyans, “Fishing Without Nets” — like last year’s admirably thorough documentary The tedium of waiting and the terror of being screamed at in an unfamiliar tongue fill the frame, and wide shots of the motionless ship, trapped between land and horizon, emphasize the circumscribed lives on board. Here, there is more than one set of hostages, and nobody wins. “Fishing Without Nets” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Drugs are chewed, and Kalashnikovs are brandished.