Hijack ‘93 (2024)

Hijack ‘93 (2024) Not to be confused with Hijack Stories. This is a Nigerian Netflix film! It’s the second biggest film industry in the world, with figures rivalled only by Bollywood. Today, Nigerian cinema focuses on production quality and concentrates on the younger generation. When the Nigerian film Half a Yellow Sun was released in cinemas in 2013, no one could have predicted the impact it would have on the local film industry and its future. It was an instant success. No Nigerian film had ever earned so much at the box office or received so much critical acclaim, propelling the entire local film industry to the forefront of the world stage. Ten years later, Nollywood (as it began to be called at the time) has become the second biggest film industry in the world, just behind Bollywood and Hollywood. More than 1,000 films are released every year, a testament to the incredible dynamism of the local industry. As the numbers grow, so does the quality of production.

Hijack ‘93 is a 2024 Nigerian disaster film directed by Robert O. Peters and written by Musa Jeffery David. It is based on the real-life Nigerian Airways hijacking of 25 October 1993. The film stars Skipper (Nnamdi Agbo), Eruku (Adam Garba), Owiwi (Allison Emmanuel) and Iku (Oluwaseyi Akinsola), a group of four teenagers armed with guns, who take control of the plane, demanding that General Ibrahim Babangida, then Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, resign from office. They also sought to address a range of political grievances, including government corruption and human rights abuses.

The film was first released on Netflix on 25 October 2024, open to an international audience. It quickly gained a substantial audience, amassing 3.2 million views and securing 9th place in Netflix Nigeria’s top ten list in its first week, making it the fourth Nollywood title of 2024 to reach this milestone. Okay…Alas, I can’t say that ‘this film is short, but effective and you don’t get bored for a second!’ Despite this, it remains good entertainment The script is decent and the actors are pretty good. In any case, it’s not too badly acted. We must support African cinema, in this case Nigerian. So rare. The film isn’t too bad, the message is good.

The most demanding and open-minded of you will simply say things like: ‘It’s a disgrace to make a film of such a low standard in 2024! It all sounds so wrong, I’m at a loss for words’, but I’m going to ignore that kind of banality. Sure, it’s a far cry from American budget films, but it’s a surprising film. At times it feels amateurish, but you’re still hooked. A must-see at least once for true film buffs of all kinds.