Produced by the Warsaw Pact Film Production and the Czech Republic's První Veřejnoprávni, and supported by the Polish Film Institute, Eurimages, Czech Television, and ATM Grupa Filmowa, Zelenka's latest project (after such films as Buttoners/1997 and Year of the Devil/2002) is the story of a Czech theatrical troupe coming to Poland with a show based on Dostoevsky's novel.

"Last year Petr was looking for a young and ambitious company to enter a co-production, and after several meetings in Prague and Warsaw with Karolina Ochab (a producer from Warsaw Pact) and the Czechs, we agreed on the terms," explained co-producer Kasia Adamik (also a director, storyboard writer, and daughter of Polish director Agnieszka Holland).

"Within less than a year from the first meeting between Ochab and Zelenka, we had completed the principal photography on location in Kraków," Adamik said. Not all the plans succeeded, for example when the director wanted to shoot inside an operational steel mill. "After a long search, we were unfortunately unable to find a facility in Poland that satisfied us artistically and financially. Moving the steel mill interiors to the Czech Republic was the only way to do itt.".

"There was always a fine atmosphere on the set. As producers who also sit behind the camera as directors, we wanted to leave Zelenka total freedom. Any interjections in the artistic aspects were simply suggestions, creative discussions. Our help also involved surrounding Petr with the best possible creative techniques at all crew levels," concluded Adamik, who also makes her own films (her Bark screened at the Warsaw festival in 2002).