Trivia / The Needle

• Actor-Inspired Element: Moro's first meeting with Dina was originally supposed to happen on a lake shore, but when the director had found out that Dina's actress practices target shooting in real life the scene was moved to a shooting range.
• Amateur Cast: Out of the whole cast only Alexandr Bashirov (Spartak) was a trained actor. Viktor Tsoi and Pyotr Mamonov were musicians and the rest of the cast were various friends and acquaintances of the director.
• Orphaned Reference: The man operating a draisine at the Aral. Moro was supposed to have met him during an earlier scene set right before the opening, but that scene ended up being cut.
• Throw It In!: The director had a very hands-free approach with filming, letting actors improvise many of their lines, character elements and scenes.