The movie was mostly shot on the court room set, a set created on a tennis court with a canopy, meaning the whole movie was shot in natural light. Three cameras were following the main characters at all times, in medium shots. In the final movie, close-up shots are almost non-existent.
Pierre Goldman was the big half-brother to French singer Jean-Jacques Goldman, who is shown several times in this movie during the trial, played by Ulysse Dutilloy-Liégeois.
The movie was shot chronologically, with a couple dozens of extras in the audience who were given roles (i.e. for or against Goldman). They were not given the script or told what would happen, and had no direction outside of being asked to react naturally to the scenes according to their roles.
The widow of Pierre Goldman, Christiane Succab-Goldman, who was not consulted by the movie makers, made her disapproval of the movie public in an interview for Le Monde in early October 2023, in which she revealed she sued the producers to add a title card to the movie emphasizing the fictional aspect of the script. It was dismissed on the grounds that the credits already state that several scenes were made up.
Her three main gripes with it are:
- her presence at the trial (and the invented dialogue she says);
- the first scene omits the fact that one of the main reasons why Goldman wanted Kiejmann sacked is that he forgot to file an appeal in time in the civil courts (like he did in the penal courts), which cost Goldman a lot of money;
- the film downplays the fraternity between Kiejmann and Goldman, making the latter look like an out-of-control client.
The working title was "Je suis innocent parce que je suis innocent", meaning "I'm innocent because I'm innocent" in English.