Director Emanuele Crialese personally chose every one of the 700 extras who appeared in the film. He said he was looking for people who could evoke the same facial expressions of the actual immigrants whose photographs Crialese came across when he was researching the film.
Vincent Schiavelli's character was supposed to be a major one in the movie; but unfortunately, Schiavelli died during the shooting of the film, and his character became a supporting character.
Isabella Ragonese's debut.