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The physical and mental strain of World War II is explored in All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger’s recent anti-war movie, which has become a hit at the 2023 Academy Awards. The movie has been adapted from Erich Maria Remarque’s novel of the same name and is a deep dive into the harrowing history of a war-torn world, which tosses viewers into the bloody landscape of the Western Front with terrifying detail.
The movie tells the story of Paul Bäumer, played by Felix Kammerer, a young, idealistic German soldier who joins the war towards the end, only to be disillusioned by the horrors of it.
All Quiet On The Western Front features a plethora of Eastern European locations, where the movie was brought to life. While the movie was not shot at the real Western Front where the war took place, the primary locations of the shooting, Czech Republic, Belgium, and Germany, were also deeply impacted by the conflict.
All Quiet on the Western Front filming locations
Let us take a detailed look at where the movie All Quiet on the Western Front was shot.
Prague, Czech Republic
Most of the shooting for All Quiet on the Western Front took place in the city of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. Berger, commenting on choosing Prague as a location for filming, said,
“Prague [is] very welcoming, and great crews, but also it is slightly more economical to shoot there. Also, because you will find buildings that aren't all renovated”
Many of the scenes we see before Paul leaves home to go to the Western Front, such as when he rides his bike through town to enlist, or the salon where he is officially joined, feature some of the dilapidated old buildings that Berger talks of. The Barradov Studio in Prague was also made use of for filming some scenes of the restrictive shots.
Milovice, Czech Republic
The battle scenes in All Quiet on the Western Front were not shot in Prague. They were instead shot in the surrounding countryside, in smaller villages like Milovice, Králův Dvůr, Točník Castle, Libušín, Vinařice, Benátky nad Jizerou, Lišany, Chotýšany, and Luštěnice, in the Bohemia region.
Moreover, the scenes where we see villages, encampments, forests, and fields where the German army waits for battle, have been shot around the countryside. The filming crew also utilized a former Soviet-era airport in the town of Milovice for the scene of the trench warfare. The crew dug hundreds of feet of trenches for shooting.
Točník Castle, Sychrov Castle, Chotěšov Abbey, Czech Republic
All Quiet on the Western Front also made use of many of the historical castles present in the country for a number of shots. The grand stony interiors of these age-old establishments served as filming locations for scenes where various private command centers for German soldiers were shown.
Among them, Sychrov Castle was a particularly distinctive feature in the movie, serving as the initial German command center at the beginning of the film. This is also most likely where the scene that sees General Friedrichs urge the German soldiers to continue fighting, despite their heavy casualties, was shot.
All Quiet on the Western Front has been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars 2023.
