[4][1] Greg is an undercover police lieutenant who must collect information on eco-activists and infiltrates a movement at a ZAD (Zone to Defend), that is fighting to save a forest from the building of a dam.

Director and screenwriter Romain Cogitore announced the project (then-titled Zad) in an interview for French newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace on 26 February 2016.

[8] The screenplay was co-written by Cogitore, Thomas Bidegain and Catherine Paillé,[9][10] and it was inspired by a real-life scandal that happened in England[10] and hit the European press in 2011, revealing long-term police missions of eco-infiltrators, some of them even had children with activists before disappearing.

[11] On 11 July 2022, Disney+ announced the shooting of its first original French film, Une zone à défendre, directed by Romain Cogitore with François Civil and Lyna Khoudri in the lead roles,[15] and that it was set to be released on Disney+ in France and around the world in 2023.

[15][1] Cogitore had previously directed Civil in his feature film directorial debut, the 2011 World War II drama 15 Lads (Nos Résistances).

[15]While shooting their first film together in 2009, 15 Lads, which had young guerrillas as protagonists, Cogitore and Civil wondered "who are the resistance fighters today?

This radicalism, these sacrifices in the service of noble causes, such as equality, social justice, respect for the environment, it inspires me," Civil told Le Figaro.

[22] Cogitore also asked Civil to read the book Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police to prepare himself for the film.

And Civil added; "Yes, it's true that the impact is very hard to measure, but the origin of the project, and what convinced us, was this: trying to show a ZAD, in a more realistic way than parodic representations, cliche or that we can see on the news channels that tell us a little about the same scenes of riots.

A hybrid music, with Brazilian percussion which highlights the feeling of group, collective, and the viola da gamba which evokes past centuries and the baroque style.

[35] All music is composed by Mathieu Lamboley.The film had its world premiere at the festival Francia está en pantalla in Madrid,[36] Spain on 8 June 2023.

"[40] Laurent Djian of Télé 7 Jours gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, calling it "A fiction without downtime, which intelligently navigates between thriller and romantic drama.

"[40] Augustin Pietron-Locatelli of Télérama gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing; "Far from the frank “society” comedy that one might fear, the first French production of Disney+ is a melodrama more interested in romance than politics.