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After the "Syrian hero boy" clip was viewed millions of times, the Norwegian Film Institute (which partially funded the film) urged Norwegian filmmaker Lars Klevberg to clarify the video's backstory. Klevberg contacted the BBC and admitted the video was not authentic, revealing the footage had been filmed in May 2014, not in Syria but in Malta. The Oslo-based filmmaker said his team wanted to draw attention to the plight of children in war-torn Syria:

If I could make a film and pretend it was real, people would share it and react with hope. We shot it in Malta in May this year on a set that was used for other famous movies like Troy and Gladiator. The little boy and girl are professional actors from Malta. The voices in the background are Syrian refugees living in Malta.

Klevberg proclaimed he and his team had no reservations about deceiving viewers of the "Syrian hero boy" video:
By publishing a clip that could appear to be authentic we hoped to take advantage of a tool that's often used in war; make a video that claims to be real. We wanted to see if the film would get attention and spur debate, first and foremost about children and war. We also wanted to see how the media would respond to such a video.

Producer John Einar Hagen also acknowledged the video's creators and backers had debated the ethical implications of presenting the fictional footage as authentic to viewers:
The children surviving gunshots was supposed to send small clues that it was not real. We had long discussions with the film's financiers about the ethics around making a film like this.