Robin Campillo's previous film, 120 beats per minute, triumphed at Cannes (Grand Prix) and the César Awards (Best Film) L'Île rouge features a family of French people in Madagascar in the 1970s, when the island has been independent for ten years. As in the film, his father was a non-commissioned officer in the French Air Force.
He and his brothers lived at Ivato Military Base 181 in Madagascar, where The Red Island was filmed.