Aki Kaurismäki decided to make this film without sound when he realized André Wilms, who was his first and only choice for the role of Shemeikka, didn't speak any Finnish.
The movie makes references to Nazarin (1959) with an upside-down poster of the film that can be seen on a wall, and also to Samuel Fuller - behind the village police commissioner that Juha goes to see, a sentence is written on the blackboard which says: "Arrest this man! - Sam Fuller".
Dedicated to the memory of Jaakko Talaskivi.