Director Frédéric Schoendoerffer and author Jean-Christophe Grangé had been wanting to work together for ten years and were just about to shoot an adaptation of Grangé's sixth novel, "Le Serment des Limbes", when they decided to pen an original story instead.
The film was shot in 35 days, with an average of 50 shots filmed per day, each shot being filmed by two cameras.