 Based on an anecdote about the Second World War by the Romani (Gypsy) historian Jacques Sigot, the film was inspired by a Romani who escaped the Nazis with help from French villagers. It depicts the rarely documented subject of Porajmos (the Romani Holocaust). Other than a band of Romani people, the film has a character based on Yvette Lundy, a French teacher who was active in the French resistance and deported to a concentration camp for forging passports for Romani. Gatlif had intended to make a documentary but the lack of supporting documents led him to present it as a drama.
