In 1969 an ex-Devil's Island convict named Henri Charriere published a bestselling book about his escape, entitled Papillon. The book was quickly turned into an Oscar nominated film starring Steve McQueen, and recounted the story of a convict’s determination to escape at all costs. The film championed the values of a human spirit that refused to submit to imprisonment, a man who rose above his fate on the "Islands of Death”, enshrining Papillon as one of the greatest escape stories ever told. Charriere’s account aroused considerable controversy and was disputed by the French authorities, who released records that proved much of Charriere’s work to be false. A significant number of events in the book were simply invented or appropriated from the experiences of other prisoners. However, the true horrors that took place in French Guyana were exposed in Rene Belbenoit’s book “Dry Guillotine”.

World of the story:
The story and setting for Man is Wolf to Man is based on fact. When I first started work on the script, I wanted to make an intelligent thriller set in an unusual landscape. For me the purpose of cinema (as opposed to TV) is to take an audience into uncharted territory and new worlds. But I am also drawn to human-interest stories, the dilemmas we face daily and the complex choices we make. Coming from a documentary background combined with a passion for history, I was immediately attracted to this world.

Much of the story takes place in the lush tropical jungles of French Guyana. But it is not simply a rain forest: it is a world where time forgot, impenetrable and mysterious, inhabited by lost tribes and savage feral children, where escape to civilization seems impossible. More..