The Hunger Games: what age is it for? 13, alone or with a parent

The codes, for parents

In a country split into twelve poor districts and one lavish capital, two teenagers per district are drawn by lot each year to kill one another on camera, and a young woman volunteers in her little sister's place.

The lexicon

• Panem and the districtsThe country, built on the ruins of North America: twelve districts each producing one resource, and a capital that consumes. The district number tells you the wealth, 12 being the poorest.
• The ReapingThe annual public lottery that picks one boy and one girl aged twelve to eighteen. The poorest enter their names several times in exchange for food, which raises their chances of being chosen.
• The tributesThe twenty-four teenagers sent into the arena. The word comes from the tax paid by a defeated people: these are children handed over as payment.
• The Hunger Games and the arenaThe television contest only one survives. The arena is manufactured and can be altered live: the organisers start fires and release beasts in it to lift the ratings.
• Sponsors and mentorsDuring the games, wealthy viewers can pay to send supplies to a tribute. So you have to please them, which explains the interviews, the costumes and the fake love story.
• The CapitolThe capital, its painted citizens and its presenters. The contrast between their extravagance and the districts' poverty is the film's main political tool.
• The CareersTributes from the rich districts, trained since childhood and volunteering. They form an alliance in the arena: they are the most dangerous opponents.
• The mockingjay and the three-finger saluteA pin and a gesture of mourning from district 12. Both become symbols of revolt in the later films, and have been used in real protests in South-East Asia.

How the world works

The violence is children killing children. It is filmed nervously, often off screen or in very short shots, but the premise is there from beginning to end. The real subject is not combat but reality television: being liked by the audience is a survival question, and the characters play a part to stay alive. The first film almost stands alone, but the story is a trilogy across four films, and the tone becomes markedly more political and harder afterwards.

The references

• Suzanne Collins's novels, published in 2008, blend two of her own memories: reality television and war reporting following one another on her screen.
• The Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, in which Athens had to send seven boys and seven girls to the monster each year, is its direct template and the author says so.
• The name Panem comes from the Latin panem et circenses, bread and circuses: the Roman strategy for holding a people.
• The three-finger salute has been taken up by real protesters in Thailand and Myanmar, to the point of being banned by the military.

Why they love it

• A heroine who is neither sweet nor talkative, who hunts to feed her family and volunteers for her sister: a figure that speaks very loudly to girls of twelve to fifteen.
• The injustice of the system is legible at once, and at that age injustice is the most mobilising subject there is.
• The question of playing a part to be liked by an audience resonates directly with social media, without the film ever needing to name them.

Three questions to ask

• Katniss pretends to be in love in order to survive: is she betraying anyone?
• The people of the Capitol watch children die as entertainment: what do we watch without thinking about it?
• Peeta says he does not want them to change him: can you stay yourself inside a system like that?