Before he wrote a novel and directed a film Jonathan Littell was, for a long time, an international aid worker. He managed big-scale logistical operations in Africa and, throughout his life, attended to war fronts from Bosnia to Syria as part of humanitarian relief teams. Littell, who doesn’t consider himself an optimist, is no stranger to the savagery of man so it’s no surprise, therefore, that he should be so persuasive when writing or making films about it.