No Man's Land

Because of the many languages, accents and dialects used in the series, six separate dialect coaches worked with the actors to guarantee accuracy, ensuring for example that each character spoke Egyptian, Syrian or Tunisian Arabic correctly. This special care also extended to post-production ADR and subtitling, which were checked and rechecked.

PRODUCTION STORY · SOURCED

Swiss actress Souheila Yacoub, who already speaks five languages fluently, learned Kurdish for two months before filming. On her first day on set she was sent to train with a Kurdish dialect coach, who thought he was being pranked and that Yacoub was in fact Kurdish.

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The interior scenes set in Europe were shot in Belgium and the exteriors in Paris, while Turkey, Syria, Egypt and Iran were all represented by Morocco and the High Atlas mountain range.

DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

Because real weapons loaded with blanks were used on the set in Morocco, the actors had to show their passports every day to officers of the Royal Gendarmerie who were present to collect the weapons.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Each episode was shot in 8 and a half days.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The actors took part in a ten-day military training.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

French writer Xabi Molia was tasked with adapting the scripts of Israeli writers Amit Cohen and Ron Leshem and, in particular, with reducing stereotypes about France and the French. Molia joked that in Cohen & Leshem's first script for the pilot episode, the lead character Antoine had sex every five minutes.

PRODUCTION STORY · SOURCED

The first two episodes were scheduled to premiere on 26 March 2020 at the Series Mania Festival in Lille, France, but the festival was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PRODUCTION STORY · SOURCED