Man from Deep River
A photographer captured in Thailand is tortured by tribal enemies, rescued by another remote community and drawn into their customs, conflicts and rituals. Umberto Lenzi’s film is often treated as the starting point for the Italian cannibal cycle, though it mixes adventure, exploitation and ethnographic spectacle more than outright horror.
Film details
| Original / alt title | Il paese del sesso selvaggio; Deep River Savages; Man from Deep River |
| Year | 1972 |
| Director | Umberto Lenzi |
| Country | Italy |
| Runtime | Approx. 93 min |
| Main cast | Ivan Rassimov, Me Me Lai, Pratitsak Singhara, Ong Ard |
UK status
The DPP list records the film under its alternate title Deep River Savages. It was dropped rather than successfully prosecuted.
Historically important because it helped establish the Italian cannibal-adventure cycle that later produced even more notorious titles.
Why it caused controversy
UK censorship / Video Nasties history
A quick status check first, followed by the film’s censorship timeline. A DPP prosecution was an obscenity case against a particular video publication — it was not automatically the same thing as a permanent nationwide “ban”.
Detailed censorship timeline & facts
FACTS & TRIVIA
- The film is often cited as the first entry in the Italian cannibal cycle.
- Ivan Rassimov and Me Me Lai became recurring faces in Euro-cult exploitation cinema.
- Compared with later cannibal films, it contains more adventure-film DNA.
- Its alternate title Deep River Savages is the one most tied to UK nasty history.
- Umberto Lenzi later directed Cannibal Ferox and Eaten Alive!
- Its DPP case was dropped.
Distributor / VHS label
Archive cover shown is the user-supplied scan. UK distributor / VHS-label attribution varies by edition and is not asserted here without a verified sleeve imprint.
Trailer
Open a search for the original theatrical / VHS-era trailer. This keeps the archive linking to publicly available trailer sources rather than hosting copyrighted film footage.
▶ FIND ORIGINAL TRAILER
