The premise was to make a film about the battle itself, filmed in a documentary style. Therefore the story has an episodic structure and no real lead character. Co-director Sakari Kirjavainen explains that in many scenes the camera "just happens to be there".
Director Åke Lindman got seriously ill during the filming. He let editor Sakari Kirjavainen finish the picture.
The movie was made using a wide array of genuine wartime vehicles. Some of the tanks used were actual individual vehicles which had participated in the actual real life, including Stug Ausf III German assault gun and T-34-85's, Russian medium tank. Also used was a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 replica, made by the German company Flug Werk.
The special effects crew deliberately avoided big fire explosions. What the audience sees is mainly peat instead of a flaming gasoline.
Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, awarded The Order of the Polar Star for director Åke Lindman, screenwriter Stefan Forss and Jyrki Hägglund, who was a treasurer of the support association behind the project, in 2007. Tali-Ihantala 1944 and especially its companion film Etulinjan edessä raised the awareness of the Swedish volunteers in the Continuation War.