The title "Suely in the Sky" was partly based on the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles, and chosen just a few days prior to competition in the Venice Film Festival. The film was to be originally titled "Rifa-Me" ("Raffle Me").
Each character has the first name of the actor who plays him or her.
In their research for the film, director/writer Karim Aïnouz and writer Felipe Bragança interviewed 20 young males and females from the state of Ceará about their lives, hopes and dreams.
Director/writer Karim Aïnouz is himself from Ceará and was raised in a family where most men had migrated to other parts of Brazil.
Writer/director Karim Aïnouz developed a similar story in the short film Rifa-Me (2000). Both stories revolve around an urban legend that happened in the Northeast of Brazil of a woman who raffled her own body.