The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

On November 17, the prequel of the Hunger Games, The Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds, was released worldwide.

The film tells about the formation of Coriolanus Snow, the main villain of the original story. Here, an ambitious, sympathetic and kind guy becomes the ruthless leader of the totalitarian state Panem.

We tell you how the film will please fans of the series, and what will upset them.

The events of the film take place 64 years before the adventures of Katniss Everdeen, the main character of the original series of books and their film adaptations. Gloomy post-war Panem is preparing for the tenth Hunger Games. According to tradition, two people from each district of the country are selected for them.

A girl named Lucy Grey Baird is being drafted from District 12. She stands out noticeably among the other tributes participating in the competition: both in appearance and behavior. Lucy is more daring, bright and rebellious, not afraid to express her own opinion.

Each tribute gets a mentor from the Capitol, the capital of the country. Young Corio Snow is assigned to Lucy Gray. He really wants to win the grand prize in order to continue his studies. His family became impoverished after the death of his father, and the only chance for the young man to get back on his feet is to receive a monetary reward for winning the Hunger Games.

Fans of the original franchise with its teenage brutality and dramatic dystopia will be able to plunge back into an already familiar world. Viewers will find out what was happening in Panem long before the Hunger Games became incredibly popular among the residents of the Capitol. Here, the tradition is still in its infancy and the trials themselves are far from spectacular