Filming started in 2000 and finished in 2006. Since then, the director worked mostly on the sound. Unfortunately, he died in February 2013, before finishing the film.
The Arkanar City set was constructed in the vicinity of Tocník castle, Czech Republic. Pavilion scenes were filmed in Moscow.
After Aleksei German's death, his son Aleksey German Jr., and Svetlana Karmalita, completed the work on the film.
The director decided to film "It's hard to be a god" back in 1968, 4 years after the book was released. Together with Boris Strugatskiy they wrote the first version of the script. In August, Aleksei German received permission to shoot, but soon Operation "Danube" - the invasion of Czechoslovakia of the troops of the USSR and other Warsaw Treaty countries began, so the director was not allowed to shoot the film. The production of the painting was delayed due to difficulties with financing and complexity of the sound.
Voted the 14th best film of 2015 in 'Sight and Sound' magazine's annual critics poll. [Nov. 2015]