Completed over the course of 5 years.
The sets were built in real human size and exhibited among various venues in multiple countries during the process of production.
The director's Decalogue with ten rules to animate:
1. This is painting on camera.
2. There are no dolls.
3. Everything can be transformed as a sculpture.
4. It never goes to black (there is no black frame).
5. The film is a one-shot sequence.
6. The movie tries to be normal.
7. The color is symbolic.
8. The camera is never in the same position in two consecutive frames.
9. Maria is beautiful.
10. It is a workshop, not a set.
The portrait that appears on the wall during the fire scene is one of Giovanni Bragolin's "Crying Boy" paintings. There is a urban legend about copies of this painting being cursed, supposedly causing fires in houses where they are hung.
Cristobál Léon and Joaquín Cocina created a book which features documentation of their filming process and various stills from the film.