Tobias Santelmann, Pål Sverre Hagen and Anders Baasmo previously worked together on Kon-Tiki (2012), as Knut Haugland, Thor Heyerdahl, and Herman Watzinger respectively.
Stellan Skarsgård, Tobias Santelmann, Pål Sverre Hagen and Anders Baasmo previously worked together on In Order of Disappearance (2014) as Nils Dickman, Finn Heimdahl, Greven-Ole Forsby and Geir respectively.
Was submitted as the Norwegian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, but did not end up being nominated. The film was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. In Berlin, the film won a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution.
In responding to the question of "How did the Nazi Occupation of Norway translate into the plot of your novel?" the novel's author Mr. Per Petterson responded, "Well, like I said, I do not plan, so that double meaning came up when I needed it. That is disappointing to some readers, I know. But for me it shows the strength of art. It is like carving out a sculpture from some material. You have to go with the quality of the material and not force upon it a form that it will not yield to anyway. That will only look awkward. Early in the book, in the 1948 part, I let the two fathers (of my main characters, Jon and Trond) have a problem with looking at each other. And I wondered, why is that? So I thought, well, it's 1948, only three years after the Germans left Norway. It has to be something with the war. And then I thought, shit, I have to write about the war. You see, I hate research."
The novel was translated into English in 2005 by Anne Born and published in the UK that year; it was published in the US in 2007. Among other awards, the novel won the 2007 Dublin IMPAC Award, one of the richest literary prizes in the world.