Like many Netflix funded productions, it was originally intended for this film to be given a limited theatrical run a few weeks before its Netflix debut, in order to make it eligible for awards season and to generate publicity in the press. However that plan had to be abandoned because of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, and the film went straight to streaming instead. However, also because of Covid, the film was deemed still eligible for most theatrical film awards, and has been nominated for 2020 film year Oscars, among other awards.
In Hamil's workshop, there's a poster of the Egyptian film Fi Baytena Ragul (1961). The film stars Omar Sharif as Ibrahim, a member of the resistance against the British occupation, who seeks refuge in the house of a politically passive family and has similar themes to this film. It's also noticeable that Omar Sharif was a close friend to Sophia Loren and they starred together in More Than a Miracle (1967). Additionally, in 2003, Omar Sharif starred in the French film Monsieur Ibrahim (2003) which was about a friendship between a Jewish boy (named Momo) and a Muslim man. A similar, but reversed theme is found in A Life Ahead, where the boy, also named Momo, is Muslim, and the older person, named Madame Rosa, is an Italian Jewish woman.