Shooting on the film, which stars Gérard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel and Laura Morante, began 12 September 2011 and will wrap in six weeks. Filming will take place in the Romanian city of Sighişoara and in Belgium. The film is an English language feature based on a Romanian novella with a WWII setting.

Ipu - Convicted to Life is produced by Giuliano Doman and the Romanian company Family Film (www.familyfilm.ro). Daniel Zuta is co-producing together with the German company Daniel Zuta Filmproduktion (www.zutafilm.de). The budget is 2,800,000 euro, Doman told FNE. The film is also supported by the National Centre for Cinema (www.cncinema.abt.ro), local advertising agencies, ARTE Germany (www.arte.tv), Rai Uno Italy (www.rai.it), Eurimages (www.coe.int/t/dg4/eurimages), and the public television of Romania (www.tvr.ro).

The film will be distributed in Romania by Transilvania Film (www.transilvaniafilm.ro) and by Farbfilm-Veleih (www.farbfilm-verleih.de) in Germany. The Romanian premiere is set for autumn 2012.