Only the second Danish film to win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, El festín de Babette (1987) having done it the year before.
The story is supposedly set on the Danish island of Bornholm, but none of the characters speak in the local dialect.
Swedish director Ingmar Bergman told August he saw the film seven times, choosing August to direct the film Las mejores intenciones (1992).
A sequel was planned, but never materialized for financial reasons. Director Bille August much later cited this as his greatest regret. The sequel would have been based on the remaining parts of the novel.