Hannibal Risingis a 2007 crime thriller / horror film , the fifth and final film to feature Dr. Hannibal Lecter . It is a prequel toRed Dragon,The Silence of the Lambs,ManhunterandHannibal. The film is an adaptation of Thomas Harris ' 2006 novel of the same name and tells the story of Lecter's evolution into the infamous serial killer of the previous films and books.

French actor Gaspard Ulliel portrays Lecter. Anthony Hopkins played the role in three previous films, after Brian Cox became the original screen Lecter in 1986'sManhunter. The film was directed by Peter Webber from a screenplay by Harris, and was filmed in Barrandov Studios in Prague . It was produced by the Dino De Laurentiis Company and was released on February 9, 2007. Theatrical distribution in the United States was handled by The Weinstein Company and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . The movie received an R rating. The DVD was released on May 29, 2007.

In 1944, in the closing days of World War II , eight-year-old Hannibal Lecter ( Aaran Thomas ) is the scion of an aristocratic family, living in the Lithuanian countryside.

Lecter, his younger sister, Mischa ( Helena-Lia Tachovska ) and their parents escape to the family's hunting lodge to elude the retreating German troops. Back at Lecter Castle, six Lithuanian militiamen ( Rhys Ifans , Richard Brake , Ivan Marevich , Kevin McKidd , Stephen Martin Walters , and Goran Kostic ) request to join the Waffen-SS . A commander orders them to kill the Lecters' Jewish cook, so they gleefully comply.

A Soviet tank crew stops at the Lecters' lodge looking for water, forcing everyone out of the house. The tank is spotted by a German Stuka bomber, which sparks a firefight. The bomber is shot down by the tank, but subsequently crashes into it, and the ensuing explosion kills everyone still alive, except Hannibal and Mischa, who had remained inside the lodge.

The Lithuanian SS militiamen then loot Lecter Castle. An impending Soviet advance forces them to hide out in the woods, where they locate the Lecter lodge. Finding no other food in the bitterly cold Baltic winter, they cannibalize Mischa in front of her brother, who escapes and is found by Soviet soldiers.

Eight years later, Lecter ( Gaspard Ulliel ) once again lives in Lecter Castle, which has been turned into a Soviet-run orphanage . He has been rendered mute by his childhood trauma . Lecter escapes from the castle orphanage to live in Paris with his widowed aunt, the Lady Murasaki ( Gong Li ). She gets him to speak and begins teaching him the arts of flower arrangement , martial arts , and ancestor worship .

At a local market, a butcher makes a rude and racist remark about Lady Murasaki. The butcher later goes fishing and is defiant when Lecter turns up to request an apology. Lecter slices the butcher's stomach, arm, and back with a katana , then decapitates him.

A family cook tells Lecter that the most delicious part of the fish he took from the butcher is the cheeks, unwittingly helping develop part of Lecter's "signature" as a serial killer.