The original screenplay was 26 pages.
'Mikhail Kalatozishvili', the director of this movie, is the grandson of Mikhail Kalatozov, the famed Russian director of the 1950s and 1960s, who directed The Cranes Are Flying (1957) (Cannes, Palme d'Or, 1958).
The movie was shot on a single set built about 40 km from the nearest village, in Kazakhstan.