The news reporter who reports about the couple's escape on the TV in Vares' house is a real news reporter in Finland's channel 4 (Nelonen).
A bar in the film, Uusi Apteekki, is a real one, established in 1993 in Turku. Just as his fictional detective Jussi Vares, also author Reijo Mäki has been a regular there.
The villains name "Karl" can be translated from Swedish to English as "man"; "Mies" is man in Finnish and "Mann" in German.
Actor Samuli Edelmann said that many lines of his character Koitere were improvised on the spot by director Aleksi Mäkelä.
The film was originally to be directed by Aku Louhimies (after his debut feature, Les instables (2000)), who had already offered it as a television series for the Finnish Yleisradio some years before. Producer Markus Selin bought the film option in 2001 and new director Aleksi Mäkelä chose the book "Keltainen leski" (eng. The Yellow Widow) as the basis of a story.