Wissenswertes

British dentist and writer Dr Sharif Islam helped publish early drafts of the screenplay.

Ari Lopez actually was placed into English, sewing and soccer lessons to prepare for the character.

The film was produced and shot 6 years before the release date.

Though the story relates the human trafficking crisis between Mexican labor-forced children and the US industry where they are situated in the story, City of Dreams is actually the nickname for Mohit Ramachandani's hometown of Mumbai, India. For several 2020 decade years prior to this film's release, India has been known as not only a notoriously child and forced labor-rampant country but also Asia being the highest concentrated number of these trafficked individuals worldwide.

Several court proceedings, criminology professors and police officers have noted use of deadly force is and was possible when the police raid the house towards the film's end where the taskmasters are captured, but the likely reason exclusion here was to continue the story flow regarding the thriller film premise. As of the 2019 California amendments, it is now "only when necessary in defense of human life" compared to the previous "when reasonable", which still covers instances such as the film's scene especially given the high intensity of commands being refused by El Jefe and continually endangering close contact injury to the boy.