The Forgiven is a drama film directed by John Michael McDonagh that revolves around a wealthy couple, David and Jo Henninger, who drive through the desert to attend an old friend’s weekend party. Events take a wild turn when a couple gets into an accident with a local teenage boy on their way to a party. She tries to cover up the misfortune, but only until the boy’s father enters the scene and seeks justice.
The culture clash between the locals and the guilty couple leads to tense situations in the narrative as David and Jo must face the consequences of their actions. While the dramatic narrative will keep you in the memory of the movie with some interesting elements, the backdrop of the vast desert rather mesmerizes and engages you in many scenes. Now, know about The Forgiven movie filming locations.
Where Was The Forgiven Movie Filmed?
“The Forgiven” was shot entirely in Morocco, specifically in Erfoud and the Sahara desert. The original plan was to start filming in early 2019, but it was delayed and moved to early 2020. Finally, the film began principal photography in February 2020. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, production was halted in March 2020.
After a break of several months, filming resumed in September 2020 and seemingly finished in November of that year. Since the story takes place in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, the production team added an element of authenticity by choosing to shoot the film in the same North African country. “The Forgiven.”
Morocco
All key sequences for “The Forgiven” were shot in and around Erfoud, an oasis town in eastern Morocco. Located in the Drâa-Tafilalet region, Erfoud was an ideal filming location for the cast and crew due to its proximity to the Sahara desert, not to mention urban oasis areas. They shot several major exterior scenes for the film across the world’s largest hot desert, the Sahara Desert.
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In a June 2022 Daily News interview, Ralph Fiennes (David Henninger) had a few words to say about how filming on location in Morocco improved the quality of the storytelling. “You’re in such heat,” Fiennes said. “You are in that light. You have sand in your eye. You just act differently.
You behave as you would in that place. … We went to a local town, and that is Morocco. This is the place. God knows we could have gone to Spain or southern Italy or somewhere else, but we didn’t. It was a real f-king desert.’
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In the same interview, Fiennes’ co-star Jessica Chastain also shared her views on the subject. She revealed: “In certain areas where we were filming, sometimes on my day off I would go to some markets or something and I really felt like people were staring at me.
When you have red hair in these less populated areas of Morocco, you feel like people compliment it, but you definitely feel like you can’t stay hidden.” She added: “In a story like this that really explores gender and this idea of surveillance … I found that filming really helped in this culture.”
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Over the years, Erfoud has attracted several filmmakers and hosted various types of film projects. Apart from ‘The Forgiven’, the oasis city has served as a production location for many movies and TV shows, such as ‘Spectre’, ‘The Mummy’, ‘The Way Back’ and ‘The Bureau’.
