The project received the biggest amount of 703,538 EUR / 3.5 m RON at the latest batch of the grants contest organised by the Romanian Film Centre (CNC), whose results were announced at the end of October 2024. The project applied as an international coproduction.

Cristian Mungiu didn't disclose further information to FNE, but the Norwegian casting agency Arkivet Casting announced a call for children (girls and boys) aged 12-14 (for main roles), and also for girls and boys of  6-10. The children should speak Romanian, English and Norwegian.

According to the casting call, the film is produced by Mungiu’s outlet Mobra films with the Norwegian company Eye Eye Pictures, and the shooting will take place in the Ålesund region in the spring of 2025.

“The film follows the relationship between two neighbouring families whose one partner is not Norwegian. The families live in a small town in Norway and their kids are in similar age. When their ideas about society, values and education start to differ, they are bound to ask themselves complex questions regarding cultural differences, the limits of intimacy, tolerance, freedom and private life”, according to Arkivet Casting.

Sebastian Stan has two nominations at the Golden Globes 2025 in the Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama and Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy categories for his roles in The Apprentice and A Different Man.

The Romanian-born American actor, who left Romania when he was 8, was a guest of the 2018 edition of the American Independent Film Festival, organised in Bucharest by Cristian Mungiu.