HANNIBAL RISING

Year: 2007
USA: MGM Distribution / The Weinstein Company
UK: Momentum Pictures
Cast: Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, Rhys Ifans, Richard Brake, Kevin McKidd, Dominic West, Aaron Thomas, Helena Lia Tachovska, Toby Alexander, Stephen Walters, Michele Wade, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Beata Ben Ammar, Vanesa Novakova, Robbie Kay, Robert Kay, Nancy Bishop, Petra Lustigova, Martin Hub, Marko Igonda, Charles Maquignon, Ivan Marevich, Jiri Subrt, Ota Filip, Dominique Bettenfeld, Vitezslav Bouchner, Katrine De Candole, David Fellowes, Ladislav Hampl, Martin Hancock, Richard Leaf, Goran Kostic, Todd Kramer, Matthew Blood-Smyth, Radek Bruna, Brian Caspe, Paul Ritter, Timothy Walker, Seon Rogers, Hugh Ross, Robert Russell, Joe Sheridan, Lana Likic, Dmitrij Matus, Denis Menochet, Marek Vasut, Jan Nemejovsky, Vaclav Chalupa
Director: Peter Webber
UK: 121 mins
USA Rated: R for strong grisly violent content and some language/sexual references
UK Certificate: 18 contains strong bloody violence
USA Release Date: 9 February 2007
UK Release Date: 9 February 2007

UK Distributor
Synopsis

This is the story of the monster Hannibal Lecter's formative years. These experiences as a child and young adult led to his remarkable contribution to the fields of medicine, music, painting and forensics.

The film opens during World War 2 at the medieval castle in Lithuania built by Dr Lecter's forebear, Hannibal the Grim. The child Hannibal survives the horrors of the Eastern Front and escapes the grim Soviet aftermath to find refuge in France with the widow of his uncle, a mysterious and beautiful Japanese descended from Lady Murasaki Shikibu, author of the Tale of Genji.

Her kind and wise attentions help him understand his unbearable recollections of the war. Remembering, he finds the means to visit the outlaw predators who changed him forever as they battened on the helpless during the collapse of the Eastern Front. Hannibal helps these war criminals toward self-knowledge even as we see his own nature become clear to him.