Based on the true story which happened to Teddy Lussi-Modeste, the film's co-writer and director who is also a teacher. The story happened to him at a school in Seine-Saint-Denis (in the Northern suburbs of Paris) in 2019. A 13-year old girl accused him of touching his belt while looking at her, one of her big brothers threatened him, another took her to the police station to file a complaint, all the teachers went on strike, etc. Like Julien, the main character, he feared for his life every time he left school, but didn't want to stop working as he felt this would have been admitting his guilt, and he also feared for his colleagues who were escorting him to the subway.
The movie was originally titled "Cueillez votre jeunesse" ("Pick/Pluck/Gather Your Youth") in 2021, then "La plainte" in 2022 ("The Complaint"), then "Pas de vague" ("No Waves") during shooting. It was slightly retitled to "Pas de vagues" in 2023, to match the viral hashtag used by teachers to talk about the abuse they suffered from students.
The movie was shot near Paris in November and early December 2022.