This film had it's world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in 1991, with
Werner Herzog in attendance. He explained, during his introduction to the film, that they hadn't had time yet to add subtitles for the couple of scenes with Spanish dialog. During these scenes, Herzog himself, shouted out from the theater audience, the English translation of the lines spoken in Spanish.
Ivan gives Roccia a book by Bruce Chatwin. Chatwin was the author of "The Viceroy of Ouidah" which Werner Herzog adapted into his previous feature film Cobra Verde (1987).
Herzog revealed once that Klaus Kinski was originally going to play the leading character in the film; a role which subsequently went to Vittorio Mezzogiorno instead.
Director Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void (2003)) said at the Telluride Film Festival in 2003 that this is his favorite film by Werner Herzog.