I haven't watched the movie, but I read the book it adapted. If I recall right, the main feel (theme?) of the book was not "how terrible it is to be sentenced t

I haven't watched the movie, but I read the book it adapted. If I recall right, the main feel (theme?) of the book was not "how terrible it is to be sentenced to silence", but closer to the feel of an adventure book, with the author telling about evasion attempts (successful or not), living on the run and living with an Indian tribe in South America. There are also depictions of the inmates' life in the French prison system. According to Wikipedia the autobiographical authenticity of the book is questioned, which I'm not too surprised about.