Thekla Reuten initially showed interest in playing Anna, but director Ben Sombogaart thought she would be better suited to play Lotte.
Anna goes to the Netherlands, not long after the war, and asks someone for help how to find her sister's address. The information is denied because Anna speaks German. In the novel there is an incident on a streetcar: a kind man offers Anna a seat and becomes angry if Anna thanks him in German. Of course the streetcar incident was harder to do in a movie: it required a postwar streetcar and many people in postwar clothing.