The scene where Omar Raddad's defense speaks to the press outside the courthouse saying, "A hundred years ago we (France) condemned a younger officer because he was Jewish." Is a direct reference to the Dreyfus Affair. Similar to Raddad, Alfred Dreyfus was wrongfully accused and convicted of treason for passing French military secret information to German Embassy and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1894. Despite evidence proving that Dreyfus had not commit treason and a French Army general Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy was the real culprit, Dreyfus continued to endure various court hearings in the same manner as Raddad. In both cases the French justice system was viewed as discriminating against Dreyfus who was Jewish where as Raddad is equally let down by the same system for being Arab and Muslim. Dreyfus was eventually released from prison in 1906 after serving a 12 year sentence.
Morocco's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards 2012.