As the film was to be written, directed and produced by an English-speaking production team, the original intention was to shoot the film in English, whilst having the actors accent there dialogue according to the language represented. However, it soon became felt that this approach might come across as comedic, especially when the Commander would have to switch between talking to his men in German and addressing the village children in French, and so, rather late into the production, the casting call for actors was changed to accommodate French and German speakers.
Aside from the Commander's German Luger, all of the weapons that the German soldiers brandish are made of wood.
The 'test' portrayed in the film was actually subverted from a method of punishment carried out on captured Russian soldiers who went AWOL during WW2. Prisoners were made to select one of their own for stoning, then the others were forced to carry out the execution, thus completely breaking the men into never resisting the chain of command ever again.