[1] The documentary consists of conversations in person and over Skype between Akerman and her mother, Natalia, who was a survivor of Auschwitz.

[2] Halfway through the film, Akerman cuts to a succession of traveling shots of a desert, which "cleave(s) the movie in two.

Her mother died shortly after filming ended, at the age of 86, in April 2014.

Akerman edited around forty hours' worth of footage to 115 minutes; she used small handheld cameras and her BlackBerry to film.

"[5] One scene, in particular, where the two "sit at the kitchen table, eating potatoes that Ms. Akerman has prepared, telling her mother that even she, the peripatetic artist, has mastered a few domestic skills" is, one New York Times reviewer suggested, "a reference to a memorable potato-peeling scene" from Jeanne.