The film is semi-autobiographical and inspired by director Dorothée Van Den Berghe's childhood. She was born in Ghent, but spent most of her childhood in Amsterdam. At the age of 18 she returned to Brussels to study sculpture and film at Sint-Lucas Academy.
This is the second collaboration between director Dorothée Van Den Berghe and actor Matthias Schoenaerts. The first was Meisje (2002), which was Berghe's directorial debut.
Déborah François was 21 years old when the film was shot and played the mother of a 10-years old girl.
Dorothée Van Den Berghe recalls how she come to find Anna Franziska Jäger to play Karo: "It's a long story! I saw her in a shop and I knew it was her, she was exactly what I wanted. I really followed this girl, and (kept tabs on her). The film took two years to put together, and by that time, she was too old for the part as I had written. She had breasts already, and the part I had written was definitely for a child who was younger than that. So.. I held auditions and auditions, but I never found that quality, what I found in her. I rewrote the script, then, and we had to rethink how to shoot the nudity, for example, because of her breasts. But I think it puts the film into a better perspective, a child that age."