Writer/director Louis Garrel's mother, Brigitte Sy, worked 20 years in prisons for theater workshops.
Was inspired by the story of writer/director Louis Garrel's mother, Brigitte Sy, who did theater workshops in prison and who directed her first feature film on this subject, Free Hands (2010), where her character, played by Ronit Elkabetz, does just that. In love with a prisoner (Carlo Brandt), she is seen in the first scene of the film marrying him, which is also how The Innocent (2022) begins. According to Louis Garrel, in The Innocent (2022), it is the story of this marriage from the son's point of view. When his mother got married in prison, Louis Garrel was 17, and was not permitted to be present, as he was under age..
As with his three previous features, The Crusade (2021), A Faithful Man (2018), and Two Friends (2015), Louis Garrel continues playing his alter ego, Abel.
Director Louis Garrel decided to work with Noémie Merlant after seeing her in Jacques Audiard's Paris, 13th District (2021) where Garrel liked her lightness and depth. With his own words, Garrel "sensed something clownish in her, which [he] wanted to bring out."
Shot in Lyon.