The movie depicting real-life events that were still on trial, Father Preynat's lawyers tried in the week before release to prevent the film from hitting cinemas, at least until the judgment and despite its Silver Bear won at the Berlin Film Festival a few days prior. They invoked the fact that Father Preynat is presumed innocent until convicted. The court decided to allow the movie to be released, arguing the priest had already pleaded guilty.
The title of this movie is the translation of the French phrase "Grâce à Dieu", which is commonly used like "Thank God" is in English. It is a direct quote of an unfortunate phrase by ex-Archbishop Cardinal Barbarin in an interview: "Grâce à Dieu ces faits sont prescrits" ("Thank God these events are subject to the statute of limitation"), which was widely understood as expressing his relief that the perpetrator could no longer be prosecuted.
The film was shot in secret, under the fake title "Alexandre", with interior church scenes filmed in Belgium and Luxembourg rather than France.
The priest portrayed in the film, Bernard Preynat, attempted without success to block its release in France. On 4 July 2019, an ecclesiastical tribunal of the Archdiocese of Lyon announced it had determined that Preynat was "guilty of criminal acts of a sexual character on minors younger than 16" and applied its maximum penalty by defrocking him. In March 2020, Preynat was convicted in the French courts of sexual assault and given a five-year prison sentence. Following his conviction, the final title cards of the film were amended for home release and streaming, to reflect the outcome of the trial.
EPILOGUE: "Father Preynot is presumed innocent. No date has been set for his trial. On July 4, 2019 he was defrocked by the ecclesiastical court. On March 7, 2019, Cardinal Barbarin received a six-month suspended prison sentence for failing to report child sexual abuse. He has appealed and is still presumed innocent. In August 2018, the statute of limitations was extended to 30 years from the age of majority."