The least-seen of Mackendrick’s Ealing pictures, The Maggie tells an unusual story of a culture clash between the Old and New Worlds. Its title is the name of a decrepit Scottish vessel whose wily captain blackmails an American tycoon into using his ramshackle boat to move valuable furniture to an island mansion. Mackendrick's precursor to Local Hero applies an almost anthropological interest in the vestiges of village culture in the postwar world to establish an irresolvable dichotomy between Yankee pragmatism and materialism and the penurious charm and superstitions of the islander
影片男主角的原型是一位伊朗裔,加拿大籍的记者巴哈里(Maziar Bahari)。2009年,巴哈里作为美国《新闻周刊》(Newsweek)驻伊朗记者,报道当年的伊朗总统大选。6月13日,选举委员会宣布艾哈迈迪-内贾德(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)获胜后,其竞争对手的支持者上街游行,巴哈里拍下了这场被称为“伊朗绿色革命”的抗议活动。6月21日,他从德黑兰的家中被带走,经历118天的监禁后获释。
其后巴哈里将自己的这段经历写成回忆录《Then They Came for Me》,于2011年出版。在书中,他描述自己遭到折磨和审讯,对方视他为潜入伊朗的间谍。由于双眼被蒙住,看不清提审人的面容,只闻到他身上的玫瑰香水味,巴哈里在书中就以“玫瑰香水”(Rosewater)称呼对方,影片的片名也是由此而来。