Netflix audiences just can’t get enough of Gerard Butler. Butler’s 2023 Kandahar movie, starring Butler as a spy who finds himself stranded in Afghanistan, was added to the streamer last week, and quickly shot to the No. 2 slot on Netflix’s Top 10 Movies trending titles list.
Directed by Rich Roman Waugh (known for his Angel Has Fallen franchise, also with Butler), with a screenplay written by Mitchell La Fortune, Kandahar stars Butler as Tom Harris, a freelance spy hired by the CIA on a mission in in Herat, Afghanistan. But Harris’s cover is blown, and finds himself the target of enemy forces. Before he can be rescued from an extraction point in Kandahar, he’ll have to fight for his life to survive.
Also starring Ali Fazal, Navid Negahban, Bahador Foladi, Nina Toussaint-White, Tom Rhys Harries, Vassilis Koukalani, Mark Arnold, Corey Johnson, and Travis Fimmel, in many ways, Kandahar is your typical American aciton movie set in the Middle East. However, one big factor that sets the movie apart from the crowd is the Kandahar filming locations. Read on to learn about where Kandahar was filmed, and how the movie made film history in Saudi Arabia.
Where was the Kandahar movie filmed?
The Gerard Butler movie Kandahar was filmed in Saudi Arabia, mostly in the northwestern region known as AlUla. In fact, Kandahar was the first major Hollywood production to film in that region since Saudi Arabia lifted its ban on cinema in 2018, allowing the movie industry into the country for the first time.
Kandahar was filmed entirely in Saudi Arabia, and most was filmed in AlUla, which is home to the country’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hegra. AlUla is an ancient city containing artifacts and structures that date back to 5000 BCE. The region is considered an oasis among the desert, where land is fertile and natural sources of water can be found. Since Saudi Arabia began allowing tourism in 2018, AlUla has become a popular tourist destination.
For exterior shots taking place in cities, Kandahar filmed in Jeddah, the second-largest city in Saudi Arabi, and the commercial center of the country, as well as in Riyadh, the capital city. In a 2022 interview with Deadline, producer Christian Mercuri described the shoot in Saudi Arabia, and the variety of climates the cast and crew experienced.
“When you think of Saudi Arabia, we think of the desert, obviously, and there’s a reason for that because it certainly has plenty,” Mercuri said. “But there is a jungle there, a lot of water there so there are different temperatures. Jeddah is very humid and warm, Riyadh is more like LA and dry. It has a lot of terrain, a lot of mountains and it’s a beautiful landscape.”
He went on to say that though studio options were limited at the time, “There’s a lot to offer with regards to outdoor shooting and this film happened to be very organic in the fact that most of it is shot out in the desert so that played into the fact that this was an opportunity to be an authentic place to shoot.”
Mecuri added that despite the country’s reputation for human rights violations and conservative culture, the production felt safe and welcomed. “I think the misconceptions we all had of them, myself included, and what you hear from the Western world is ignorant and misguided. I was very impressed, and it’s a truly safe and warm place, with warm and helpful people, and it’s been an amazing experience. “
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