• Director(s):

    DU TERTRE (PATRICE)

  • Producer(s):

    MANO A MANO

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2006

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    NON-THEATRICAL, TV, VOD, DVD, INTERNET

Piracy is one of the oldest professions in the world and is currently on the increase. In the Malacca Straits, a piracy hotspot for centuries, cases of well-equipped, armed pirates attacking ships have tripled over the last ten years.

Sometimes the pirates are just looking for cash, but they are now increasingly exchanging the boat they board and its crew for a ransom.

Today they have new weapons, new boats and new know-how.
The 50,000 cargo ships a year, which use the Malacca Straits every ten minutes, make Singapore one of the busiest ports in the world. Given the large financial and geopolitical stakes, international pressure is increasing, for this route to be rendered secure.
The IMO (International Marine Office) therefore recommends that all ships over 500 tonnes be equipped with a specific ship security alert system, called Shiploc. Several such measures have been made obligatory from 1 July 2006.

But attacks have not stopped since these announcements.
The authorities' failure to coordinate their actions to bring order to the Straits has given rise to a new threat - the development of "counter-pirate" private marines.
The existence of these professional, counter-piracy companies, selling "anti-pirate" security for a minimum fee of 50,000 dollars a time, poses a number of questions.
Have they come about as a result of pressure from insurance companies, charterers or ship owners?