Even though the film was shot in spring, besides the floods, rain and the extremely hot weather, changing every day, the production had to deal with the snow as well.
The beginning of the film was shot just 6 miles away from the riverside area and hot temperatures, but even though it was May, production had to hire four snowplows the day before in order to approach the location and to remove the snow from the scene. The scene was shot from the drone as well.
Main actress Masha (12) accompanied by her parents made the decision to do the whole film barefoot, even in these extreme conditions. The doctors were with us the whole time, but she managed to pull it till the end, without any harm. Big round of applause for her bravery and determination.
Cassandra wakes up three times in the film.
The beginning of a film was completely shot in a studio with a green screen. The cottage scene, interior and exterior, was done in a town 150 miles away from the forest where the cottage is placed in the film.
Scene where Cassandra approaches the house in the middle of a river and meets the children of the forest, was a production venture. The divers along with the two security boats were following the crew and main actors (children) that were in two separate boats, with the camera equipment and a Steadicam operator.
Since it was springtime, the floods were big, so the production had to lower the level of the river in order to secure the scene, so the floodgate was closed the day before and the production had only a few hours to shoot the scene, otherwise the opposite side of the floodgate would flood. For the last shot, the crew had to split, as planned, on two sides of the river Drina, which is at the same time the border between the two countries - Bosnia and Hercegovina and Serbia to shoot the same shot, since the floodgate was about to be opened. The last shot was performed by the Steadicam operator from the side of Serbia and a Drone operator from the Bosnian side.
20 kids were in the house on the rock in the middle of that same river.