The first battle scene was shot in the night in a central Bucharest street, and the last battle scene was shot in an abandoned chemical factory in Bucharest, Romania.
All the scenes with Harvey Keitel were shot on Long Island, New York. Harvey Keitel befriended a ninety-year-old Holocaust survivor, with whom he frequently spent time, as a part of his preparation for playing ninety-five-year-old Hungarian Holocaust survivor Sonson Kovács. Being a dedicated method actor, Harvey had to learn walking with a cane, and with a slight limp, exactly as the real ninety-year-old Holocaust survivor.
A World War II deportation freight train was built from scratch with rusty old wheels, parts, and debris found in an old train scrapyard. The deportation scene, where the "chosen" Jews boarded the deportation train, taking them to the camps, was shot on disused, weed-grown tracks in the scrap backyard of an old train station in Bucharest, Romania.
In the last big battle scene in the movie, soldiers from the Romanian Army played German Nazi soldiers, and real civilians played Jewish rebels. This way Director Jasmin Dizdar tried to create a more believable civil war zone battle, where real civilian rebels needed to handle weapons, just as poorly trained civilians would do, as they fought the Nazi Army retreating from a Russian front. The last big battle was shot in seven days, and while directing the brutal World War II battle, Dizdar was injured, rushed to the hospital, and next day continued directing with heavily bandaged leg.
This movie featured an international ensemble cast of sixty actors and actresses. It was shot on a thirty day schedule, and was delivered on time and on budget.