Long before a certain cannibal sipped his first Chianti or dined on his first human liver, a young boy named Hannibal Lecter received a stark lesson in mortality as war raged around him. But of all the horrors he witnessed growing up in Lithuania, none could have prepared him for the brutal murder of his family at the hands of the Nazis. Somehow, he manages to survive this horrific ordeal and ends up years later in France, where he studies medicine and forensics. But despite all his academic achievements, Lecter is haunted by memories of the abuse he faced as a child, and sets out to exact revenge on the predators who robbed him of his innocence. The film raises some interesting questions about the nature of evil; is a person born evil or do they gradually become evil as a result of their environment? While offering no conclusive answer, director Peter Webber does appear to subscribe to the latter theory. In the same way that MONSTER turned serial-killing prostitute Aileen Wuornos into a sympathetic figure, HANNIBAL RISING tries to humanise Lecter by putting his later actions into context of this tragic upbringing. Despite the notable absence of Anthony Hopkins, rising star Gaspard Ulliel (A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT) delivers a credible performance as the young Hannibal Lecter with just the right balance of charm and menace. Based on Thomas Harris’ book of the same name, Webber’s dark and intense prequel offers a valuable insight into the background and psyche of a character that has fascinated and terrified audiences ever since they were introduced to him in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.