Filmmaker Djamel Bensalah got the idea for the film when he was 15 and watched a report on the Raid Gauloises on television.
Production manager Patrick Lancelot and cinematographer Bernard Lutic died in a helicopter accident on November 28 2000 while location scouting in Venezuela. The tragedy almost caused the film, which is dedicated to their memory, to be canceled.
Lead actress Hélène de Fougerolles almost drowned while filming an underwater scene when she got stuck in a tarp while coming up for air.
Filming lasted four and a half months.