Hannibal Rising
Hannibal Rising is the title of the fourth Hannibal Lecter novel by Thomas Harris and its adaptation by Peter Webber . The novel deals with Hannibal Lecter's childhood and adolescence. In terms of content, it represents the beginning of the overall storyline. It is followed by Roter Drache , Das Schweigen der Lämmer and Hannibal .
action
Eight-year-old Hannibal Lecter lived with his parents and sister Mischa at Lecter Castle in Lithuania when the German Russian campaign began in 1941 . The family and some servants can take refuge in a hunting lodge in the woods. Three years later, while retreating from the Red Army , German troops destroy a Soviet tank, the crew of which are in search of water at the hunting lodge. Hannibal and Mischa are the only ones to survive the explosion, but are captured shortly afterwards by former Lithuanian collaborators who pose as Red Cross paramedics and hide in the hunting lodge while fleeing from the Russians.
In the harsh winter at the beginning of 1945, all of the food supplies in the remote hunting lodge gradually run out. Hannibal sees himself as protector of his dearly beloved little sister, but can not prevent the collaborators Mischa kill and their meat eating to the starvation to escape. Hannibal faints temporarily and is found by Soviet soldiers who take him to an orphanage that was set up in the former castle of his own family. The experiences in the hunting lodge made him mute for over a year. The memory of what happened is so gruesome that his mind has pushed it aside. In the years to come, Hannibal will try again and again to remember what happened. These gradually reappear in his consciousness, but it is precisely the recurring memories of the atrocities that also help to gradually cool his soul.
A year later, in 1946, Hannibal is adopted by his uncle Robert Lecter, who lives in France and is a well-known painter there. He has a country house south of Paris , where he lives with his wife, Lady Murasaki Shikibu, the daughter of a Japanese diplomat . There the young Hannibal blossoms again, and the talented pupil shows up again, which Hannibal had already been before the cruel events in the hunting lodge. He commits his first murder of Paul Momund, a butcher who insulted his aunt in a sexist and racist way by first seriously injuring him with a sword and then severing his head. Lecter is supposed to testify to the police using a lie detector . However, he does not show any emotions, which the people involved find disturbing and shocking. A French police officer, Inspector Popil, becomes aware of Hannibal and begins to pursue him. However, he does not succeed in proving the crime to Hannibal, although he seems to sympathize with him to a certain extent, even identifying a little with him. It plays a role here that the murder victim collaborated with the Nazis to extradite Jews during the occupation .
After the death of Hannibal's stepfather, Lady Murasaki moves with Hannibal to Paris, where she owns an apartment in the Marais . Hannibal himself begins medical school and is the youngest medical student in French history to attract the attention of professors . During this time he begins to take revenge on those militiamen who killed his sister. He tracks down one by one and murders them. Before the leader of the collaborators, who himself has lived as a criminal in France for years, dies, he tells Hannibal that once in the hunting lodge, when he was hungry, he himself was after all unconsciously involved in feeding his own sister. Hannibal is later arrested by Popil, but is released to study abroad.
The novel eventually ends with Hannibal's appointment to the Johns Hopkins University Hospital .
background
A comment by producer Dino De Laurentiis , who held the film rights to the character Hannibal Lecter , suggests that Harris wrote Hannibal Rising only to prevent a prequel story without his involvement. Entertainment Weekly quotes De Laurentiis as follows: "I say to Thomas," If you don't do [the prequel], I will do it with someone else… I don't want to lose this franchise. And the audience wants it… "He said," No. I'm sorry. " And I said, "I will do it with somebody else". And then he said, "Let me think about it. I will come up with an idea". "
filming
The novel is directed by Peter Webber and based on a screenplay by Thomas Harris as Hannibal Rising - How It All Began . The lead roles are played by Gaspard Ulliel as Hannibal Lecter, Gong Li as Murasaki Shikibu and Dominic West as Inspector Popil. The film opened in the USA on February 9, 2007. In Germany, it opened on February 15, 2007.
Audio book
- Thomas Harris: Hannibal Rising. Abridged version, read by Matthias Koeberlin . Random House Audio , 2007.
Expenses (selection)
- Thomas Harris: Hannibal Rising. Heyne Verlag , Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-453-43264-2 .
- Thomas Harris: Hannibal Rising. Dell, New York 2006, ISBN 978-0-440-24286-4 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Fierman, Daniel: Hannibal Lecter meets his end , in: Entertainment Weekly, February 16, 2007.