Auteur Dan Krauss’ ‘The Kill Team’ is an effort to portray a dramatized version of true events in the lives of soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. The 2019 war film follows Andrew Briggman, who joins the US Army in Kandahar and plans to make an impression by being the team leader. But he eventually finds himself on the sidelines since he’s considered too good to be involved in whatever his fellow soldiers and Staff Sergeant Deeks are up to.
Set in 2009, the soldiers find themselves interacting with locals in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Valley in the film. Some of them don’t understand the language, but they make their mission a priority and explore the vast land while making the most of their time there. With plenty of open fields and sand all around the soldiers, it makes for the perfect war movie setting. To understand how the makers captured the true essence of life in Afghanistan, let’s take a look at where the film was taped.
The Kill Team Filming Locations
‘The Kill Team’ was filmed entirely in Spain, especially in the Canary Islands. The exact shooting dates haven’t been revealed, but the film was already in pre-production by October 28, 2016, with the announcement of the lead actors Nat Wolff and Alexander Skarsgård joining the cast. The intimation of the other actors who play soldiers joining the cast was given much later in 2017. Some actors still started their training for the film by August 6, 2017. With all the cast members in place, the shooting for the film is believed to have wrapped up by the end of October 2017. Since the movie couldn’t be filmed in Afghanistan, the locations were chosen in Spain that could mimic what it would feel like for soldiers to be in a military base in Afghanistan. Now that we’ve understood the production process let’s get into the details of the specific locations where this movie was shot.
Madrid, Spain
Some portions of the film were shot in Madrid, Spain since a military base was created there. The cast had to be trained for the shooting and the fighting scenes, which all happened in Madrid at the boot camp that was prepared. Other scenes in the film where the actors go about their routines while on a military base are believed to have been shot there. The production team stayed there for five weeks to complete the training and shoot the portions in the area. The cast and crew were also spotted training in this area and preparing for their respective roles in the film. There are vast plains near Madrid that make it much easier to shoot such war scenes where open spaces are needed.
Fuerteventura, Canary Islands
The majority of the film was shot in Fuerteventura, which is one of the eastern islands of the Canary Islands in Spain. It was chosen as the location for shooting the Afghan desert scenes, which were plenty in the film. A lot of the scenes here were also shot with a hand-held camera, which was a call taken to help shoot the actors while they were on the move. The vast island gave the cast and crew plenty of good locales to shoot all the scenes that had to depict empty and desert-type spaces.
Fuerteventura has turned out to be a favorite of many directors who get access to plenty of white sand and unexplored natural landscapes, with proximity to volcanoes, beaches, and forest areas, which can be used to their advantage. Some notable films that have been shot in Fuerteventura include ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story,’ ‘Wonder Woman 1984,’ ‘Jason Bourne’ and even Marvel’s ‘The Eternals.’ It also has some unique rock formations that can help recreate even historical war scenes.
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