Spain
On Screen
With its awe-inspiring landscapes and exhilarating cities, it’s little wonder that Spain has captured the imagination of so many great television and film-makers. Catch a Spanish film at an open-air cinema screening or follow the trail of your favourite show or movie to see the sights behind the sets.
t A rock formation in the Bárdenas Reales, a set for Game of Thrones
Location, Location, Location
Photogenic Barcelona has served as the set for many films and the city’s tourist office offers movie-themed walking routes (www.barcelonamovie.com). Almodóvar used the Catalonian city as the stage for All About My Mother (1999), but Madrid is the setting for many of his quirky films, including Talk To Her (2002). See the capital through his lens with Insider’s Madrid (www.insidersmadrid.com). Spain has also starred on the small screen, in TV epic Game of Thrones (2011–2019). The Bárdenas Reales served as the Dothraki Sea and Girona as King’s Landing.
Backyard Cinema
On sultry summer nights, pop-up screens show old favourites and new releases in the great outdoors. Barcelona has the vast Sala Montjuïc (www.salamontjuic.org), while Madrid claims the country’s largest drive-in cinema – the Autocine Madrid RACE (autocinesmadrid.es) – and the gorgeous Cibeles de Cine, where you can catch classics under the glass roof if the weather’s bad (www.centrocentro.org). Elsewhere, Cinema Paradiso shows films in Ibiza’s swankiest spots (cinemaparadisoibiza.com).
Film-ivals
San Sebastián hosts one of the world’s most glamorous film festivals. Alongside the star-studded premieres, there are plenty of opportunities to watch a screening. Elsewhere, Sitges has the Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya (sitgesfilmfestival.com) and Barcelona L’Alternativa, a celebration of independent film (alternativa.cccb.org).
Spain’s Wild West
Step into a real-life Westworld or embrace your inner John Wayne in Andalucía’s arid Tabernas Desert, which seems to be populated only by cacti. Dress up as a cowboy, watch a staged shoot-out and have a drink in a saloon bar, with swinging doors, as you discover the surprising set for scores of 1960s and 1970s spaghetti westerns. The two-dimensional buildings and fake tumbleweed once used for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) and A Fistful of Dollars (1964) now populate imaginative theme parks – Oasys – Parque Temático del Desierto de Tabernas and Fort Bravo.
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar is one of the most highly acclaimed film-makers of modern times. Born in La Mancha in 1949, he became part of la movida – the post-Franco countercultural movement that galvanized the arts in Spain. Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) brought him international fame but his 1999 film All About My Mother is considered his masterpiece.
DISCOVER Spain Your Way
Films Shot in Spain
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Guillermo del Toro’s film is set in Franco’s Spain.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
This romantic comedy is by Woody Allen.
Volver (2006)
This Almodóvar hit was filmed in La Mancha.
A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
Sergio Leone’s first spaghetti western.
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
Ridley Scott’s biblical epic was filmed in the Canary Islands.