The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Katniss Everdeen ( Jennifer Lawrence ) and Peeta Mellark ( Josh Hutcherson ) have every reason to be happy because they managed the impossible and both emerged as winners of the 74th Hunger Games. Above all, Katniss doesn’t want to feel any happiness at all, she keeps seeing the other participants in the competition in front of her, who had to lose their lives for her to progress. This is a problem for President Snow ( Donald Sutherland ): A heroine who doesn’t want to be one doesn’t fit into his concept of government at all. After all, their job is to distract the masses from their misery with beautiful pictures and lots of superficial glosses. If that doesn’t happen, a revolution threatens. And with it the loss of power.

When his attempts to bring Katniss into disrepute through clever manipulation of the media fail, the new director Plutarch Heavensbee ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ) has an idea that is as brilliant as it is perfidious: On the 75th anniversary of The Hunger Games, only former winners should compete against each other, and Katniss as well. If the beacon of hope for the masses dies in the process – and care must be taken to ensure that – the potential uprisings will also be nipped in the bud.

When The Hunger Games was released more than two years ago, no one would have expected it to be such a huge success: The film adaptation of Suzanne Collins ‘ novel grossed around 700 million worldwide, and in Germany alone, more than two million viewers flocked to the cinemas. It was clear that a sequel would follow soon. And then, as expected, we didn’t have to wait long, at the end of last year the second part Catching Fire was released in the cinemas, the film adaptation of the third novel Mockingjay – again divided into two films for greater income – is already in the starting blocks.

• The Hunger Games