“Where the punishement is worse than the crime.”

Imagine the prison of Alcatraz, only 10 times worse, built on tropical, hellish and deadly islands, lost to the rest of the world. Three tiny castaway islands rise away from the coast of French Guyana, in South America: The Devil’s Islands. Now buried under an impenetrable jungle, lay the lost remains of what had been for a hundred years the most storied convict prison in history.

There, while most of the prisoners faded into oblivion, a few became legends. Some because they were innocent, as in the scandalous Dreyfus Affair, some because they somehow escaped the islands of nightmare, as did the “butterfly”, Henry Charrière, immortalized by Steve McQueen in Papillon.

Now 50 years after the prison doors slammed shut for the last time, we explore what’s left of the Devil’s Islands’ unbelievably dark and oppressive realm.  Follow Jean-Christophe Jeauffre and his crew as he reveals the secrets of another lost world.  Witness up-close the disintegration of the stone and iron ruins in the grip of the implacable jungle.   Legendary actor Christopher Lee (Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings…) tells an amazing journey into what was called the “Green Hell” and the history of forgotten souls who had found doom there.

France / United States, 52 min., 2000-2007
Producers : Jules Verne Adventures / Voyage Channel / BlueFrontier
Director : Jean-Christophe Jeauffre
Pictures : Jean-Christophe Jeauffre / Philippe Semard / Thierry Anne
Music : John Scott