To get the rights, François Ozon came to see Catherine Camus, Albert's daughter and custodian of his work, and pitched his version of the story to her. He was very glad to succeed in convincing her, as he knew that some famous directors had tried before him and failed.
Although the story is set in Algeria, the movie was shot in Morocco, in the spring of 2025, with the city of Tangier standing for Algiers.
Third adaptation of Albert Camus' famous novel, after The Stranger (1967) (from Italy) and Fate (2001) (from Türkiye).
The movie doesn't start with the famous opening line "Aujourd'hui, maman est morte." ("Today, Mommy died" in English), but by "J'ai tué un arabe" ("I killed an Arab" in English), which is a storyline that doesn't come up until the second half in the novel.
The movie was shot in black and white because there was not enough money in the budget to properly recreate colonial Algeria, with sets, costumes, and so on. This makes it François Ozon's second black and white movie after Frantz (2016).
