Synopsis

During World War II, young Hannibal Lecter survives the destruction of his family and the murder of his sister, Mischa. Years later, living in postwar France, he begins pursuing the men responsible for his trauma. His quest for revenge gradually develops into the violent, ritualistic behavior that will define him as the infamous Hannibal Lecter.

Factoids & Trivia

• Thomas Harris wrote the screenplay himself, adapting his 2006 novel of the same name. The film marked Harris' first screenwriting credit.

• Production took place between October 2005 and January 2006, with filming in Lithuania, France, and the Czech Republic. Prague and Brno provided many of the film's locations, while Kost Castle stood in for Lecter's family castle.

• To prepare for the role, Gaspard Ulliel read Harris' earlier Lecter novels, studied books about serial killers, watched samurai films, and attended an autopsy class at a medical school in Prague.

• The film is the fifth entry in the Hannibal Lecter film franchise, but it is set decades before the events of the earlier films.

• Two props reportedly disappeared from the set: a severed rubber head used in a decapitation scene and a rubber penis taken from a full-size body replica.