The movie could not be shot in the actual "Maison des femmes de Saint-Denis", because it is still running, so the film crew opted to use a Salvation Army social center in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, called la "Cité de Refuge" ("the Shelter City", in English), for the scenes set in the lobby, in the psychology room and in the activity room. For the rest, the sets were built in a disaffected office building in Bry-sur-Marne, five miles east of Paris.
The movie dramatizes the ongoing struggle of the "Maison des femmes" of Saint-Denis, two miles north of Paris, to keep running and justify their expenses to the government. Director Melisa Godet first heard of this place in an radio interview of its founder, OBGYN Ghada Hatem in 2016, where she talked about the place she just opened. Godet thought it wonderful that such a place could exist, and immediately thought of the cinematic appeal, and imagined an radiant ensemble movie with important things to say on a serious subject matter. However, Hatem was hard to convince, as she didn't want to become a movie character. It's only after Godet showed her a detailed treatment that Hatem changed her mind, but she agreed on the condition that the main character be a completely fictional character, and not an impression of her. Karin Viard, who plays Diane, the founder, looks indeed nothing like Hatem, but as she succeeded in channeling her drive and energy, many colleagues of Hatem saw the similarities when they saw the finished movie.
While the movie uses a lot of cuts for most of its sequences, the scenes with the patients' interviews are shot in long takes, and are the only scenes not shot with Steadicams.
Director Melisa Godet made a conscious decision early on to focus on the doctors and nurses, and to avoid showing any violence onscreen.
The original French title is "La maison des femmes", meaning literally "the Women's House", i.e. a women's shelter.
