Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Year: 2001
Genre: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Country: UK, USA
Director: Chris Columbus
Degree of relevance: Medium
The movie shows the adventures of Harry Potter in his first year at a wizard school. He is an orphan, and the maleficent wizard who killed his parents is now after him. Together with his friends, Harry has to save the Sorcerer’s Stone (a stone with magical powers) from Voldemort, his enemy. In this context, Hagrid, one of the staff at Hogwarts and at the same time Harry’s friend, grows a baby dragon, which is illegal. When finding out about it, Harry, together with his friends Ron and Hermione, convince Hagrid to give the dragon to Charlie, Ron’s older brother, who works in Romania and deals with magical creatures, thus being experienced in this field.
I find it particularly relevant that Romania is introduced in this magical wizard world, given the stereotype usually associated with it (vampires, ghosts etc.). The fact that the dragon is taken by Charlie to Romania is important for characterizing the area: it reinforces once again the idea that this area is a mythical one, filled with legends and stories. Moreover, it is not in opposition with the modern world, but rather appreciated for this in the context of this magical world which rejects any modern developments (no electrical power, no cars etc.).
Ron mentions at some point that his brother has moved to Romania, which implies he has a full-time job there in working with dragons. This suggests that they are a common thing here, and I believe it is a good thing that the author/scriptwriter decided to make this brief reference to Romania. Furthermore, I think this helps the movie create a complete image of a global wizard community, starting from stereotypes that are already existent in literature or popular culture.
