‘Harry Potter’ is the gift that keeps on giving. Last week the hashtag #BlackHogwarts took Twitter by storm as black fans of JK Rowling’s hit fantasy series made hilarious work of reimagining the wizarding world while ‘Voldemort: Origins of the Heir’, a fan fiction film released on 13 January, has casually clocked upward of four million views over on YouTube.
Unofficial, slickly produced and presented to the world after some legal trouble with Warner Bros, the Voldemort-centric prequel expands the life of Tom Marvolo Riddle during his time at Hogwarts.
The brainchild of Italian screenwriter and director Gianmaria Pezzato who wrote, edited and directed the hour-long film, visually, ‘Voldemort: Origins of the Heir’ is a fan fiction feat of Room of Requirement duels and Veritaserum becoming a tool of Soviet interrogation as a British auror follows the murder trail of Hepzibah Smith.
A mixture of canon and artistic license, the film, shot in Italy, stars an ensemble of Italian actors; the most riveting of which is Stefano Rossi as Riddle. Crowdfunded and not connected with Warner Bros or Rowling in any way, the film looks and feels like the cinematic wizarding world and boasts some impressive scenes and effects from both Pezzato and cinematographer Michele Purin.
Earning an A for effort but distracting in its dubious dubbing into English, the film’s visual aspect is top notch but it lacks a little with regard to a narrative that zooms in on the rise of Riddle’s dark and unforgiving nature in the presence of the Hogwarts founder’s secret heirs.
Stream this to witness how inspiring loving literature can be. The universe feels legit, it’s a pleasure to be thrust back into Rowling’s epic wizarding world and Rossi is a marvolo to watch.
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