Naman Shrestha
‘Boy Kills World’ stars Bill Skarsgård as Boy, a deaf-mute man who embarks on a vengeful journey against Hilda Van Der Koy, the matriarch of a corrupt dynasty called the Van Der Koys responsible for killing his family. In order to instill the ability to fight against the powerful enemy, Boy takes the help of a mysterious shaman and gets trained. Along with a resistance group, he leads the revenge mission in an attempt to avenge the death of his loved ones.
Helmed by Moritz Mohr, the action movie focuses on how Boy represses his traumatic experiences and imagination to turn them into the driving force and become an instrument of death to the opposition. Besides Bill Skarsgård, the comedy thriller film also features other talented actors in the industry in supporting roles, including Jessica Rothe, Michelle Dockery, Famke Janssen, Sharlto Copley, Brett Gelman, Isaiah Mustafa, and Andrew Koji. With breathtaking action sequences and intriguing visuals, the setting of ‘Boy Kills World’ is bound to turn many heads.
Boy Kills World Filming Locations
In the southern region of Africa, award-winning Cinematographer Peter Matjasko employed his artistic abilities to translate director Moritz Mohr’s creative vision into a fantastical dystopian setting. Filming of the bloody revenge thriller began in February 2022 and concluded in a few weeks in April. Since South Africa is home to varied landscapes and a booming film industry, it is not surprising that it was chosen as the shooting site for the movie.
Cape Town, South Africa
For the purpose of filming ‘Boy Kills World,’ the production team ventured into the southwestern coast of South Africa. In particular, shooting extensively took place in Cape Town, the capital of the country. To settle on the backdrops ideal for the actualization of the brutal action sequences, taping was carried out in multiple locations in the port city. Explaining the graphic novelesque visuals, the director explained that the vision behind the aesthetic was to produce a “comic book movie without the comic book.” Wayne Fitzjohn, Chairman of Nthibah Pictures — a South African production company and one of the producers of the film — told Screen Daily: “We never left Cape Town.”
He further added, “We shot Indonesian-type jungles, we shot run-down ghettoes, we shot massive haunting landscapes, we shot wide city shots with bays – and all within a 25-minute radius. It’s an incredibly versatile place with a crew that speaks English and has vast experience.” The variety of production facilities provided by the region ensured the shooting process was carried out without major hiccups and the team was able to fulfill its requirement of creating several backdrops for the film’s dynamic sequences, one of which even involved snow. Shooting for a few sequences also took place in the suburb of Ottery.
In a conversation with A.frame, the director talked about the experience and shared that he is super proud of the spirit of the cast and crew members throughout the production process of ‘Boy Kills World.’ He stated, “When we were on set in South Africa, it felt like everybody was — to some degree — having fun. It felt like everyone was really giving us their best, and I’ve worked on a lot of commercial sets where that isn’t the case. You could tell that everybody really wanted this movie to be great. That’s an amazing thing to feel. I hope I can keep making movies like that where you can tell that people have a clear passion for the material and really, truly believe that what they’re making is something special.”
In an interview with Variety, the German filmmaker opened up about the challenges the team dealt with during the production process. “We shot at the tail-end of COVID, and COVID struck a couple of times during production, like it did with any other production. I was on set and talking to the actors, and a PA came over and said, ‘So one of the tests got back. That actor is positive. We were taking them back to the trailer.’ We have to switch it up, we’ve got to do something else. Suddenly, the whole day is off, you have to do something different. And it happened a couple more times, where we had to shoot an entire scene with the doubles over three days, going over the shoulders.”
Located in the province of Western Cape, Cape Town boasts a rich cultural heritage, pristine beaches, striking mountain ranges, and several other ornaments of natural beauty that provide stunning views of the picturesque landscape. Besides that, it provides skilled labor, a favorable exchange rate, and tax incentives reserved for filmmaking, which assist in managing production costs. Taking the aforementioned points into consideration, it can be easily concluded why it can easily double up as various global destinations and has become a preferred filming location for numerous movies and TV shows such as ‘Boy Kills World.’
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