Rejected by the Berlin and the Cannes Film Festival.
Aleksey Balabanov says everything shown in the film is true but does not think the film is scary: "Life was much worse than it is shown in my film. You haven't seen the starving people I brought bread to! That was back in the middle of 1980s when I worked as an assistant director."
The filming was very hard for Aleksey Poluyan who suffered from severe pancreatitis. Besides, he had hysterics after the scene where Zhurov raped Anzhelika was filmed. Nevertheless, according to Poluyan, the crew "took great care of him, wouldn't allow him anything, wouldn't let him go anywhere, like a bird in a golden cage." At first they even wanted to use CGI for the motorcycle scenes out of fear that he wouldn't stand them but changed their minds. Poluyan had no previous experience of driving whatsoever but they taught him in two hours.
Aleksey Balabanov wrote the role of Captain Zhurov for Evgeniy Mironov but the latter refused to star in "Gruz 200", as well as Sergey Makovetskiy and Kirill Pirogov who also collaborated with Balabanov on his previous films. Makovetskiy even recommended that Balabanov should not make "Gruz 200" at all after he read the script. The role of Captain Zhurov went to Aleksey Poluyan, although Balabanov originally planned only a small role for him.
Loosely based on Faulkner's novel "Sanctuary", being one of many examples of literary influences for Balabanov's films.