The film uses a largely Cinéma vérité style, and the director employed non-professional actors and an improvised script, shooting in Catania, Sicily.

Stangle developed the concept in wanting to tell a story of migration in Italy and had an attraction to characters who were boxers, finding further inspiration in researching the Roman historian, Polybius.

Later in researching I was reading a two thousand year old text from a roman historian, Polybius, and he said to understand the conflict between two cultures you need to think of it as two boxers fighting in a ring.

"[6] Reviewing during the Rome Film Festival, Giorgio Sgarbi wrote: "the cinematography is raw and poignant... a beautiful and engaging soundtrack, with the merit of bringing the public closer to the traditional music of Sicily, which includes all the various sounds of peoples and cultures that have set foot on the island.

Cinema Italia published: "Acqua fuori dal Ring confirms boxing as the most cinematographic sport there is, as well as the talent of this young American-born director.