Director Leonardo Corbucci asked Alfonso Cuarón to send a "special" letter to the local Bulgarian production crew, to ask them to assist Corbucci in achieving a complicated helicopter scene which the crew were reluctant to shoot as they thought it was impossible. After 6 months of preparation the sequence was finally shot. Corbucci framed Cuarón's letter to remind the crew that in movies, nothing is impossible.
Many scenes in the movie were shot years apart, including the scene where Leonardo is crying in front of Elena. There are shots filmed in Bulgaria and shots filmed in Italy more than one year later.
The director spent few years in Bulgaria during and after the filming of this movie because he really liked the Country.