Hanna Season 1: 7 Brilliant Details You Probably Missed

7. The Rights Of Sentient Property

In the second episode, Marissa Wiegler meets with former Utrax colleague Michael Jacobs to enlist his help in searching for Hanna. Since they're meeting in public, she obscures Hanna's file by hiding it under a newspaper. While the close-up shot of Jacobs lifting the newspaper is only there so that we can see the file underneath it, the newspaper itself is worth a closer look.

The text is in French, but a quick translation reveals that the article concerns a book on animal regulations. This book examines the legal rights of animals, highlighting the moral ambiguity of subjecting sentient beings to the regime of property. It's actually the first book in Europe to compile all French legal texts concerning animal welfare in a single volume.

This is a real article by Le Monde, published within the same month that filming began on Amazon's Hanna. As such, its inclusion may have been a mere coincidence. For any props department in need of a French newspaper, Le Monde is a fairly obvious go-to. On the other hand, this particular article is a compelling choice for the scene in question.

As far as the CIA is concerned, the Utrax subjects are living property. They're raised in captivity and trained like animals. In this very scene, Wiegler is trying to secure the capture of subject that was stolen from Utrax before it could be euthanized. Thematically speaking, Hanna's file appearing in the same shot as an article on the rights of living property is one of the more brilliant directorial decisions of the entire season.