Naman Shrestha
In ‘Dead of Winter,’ Emma Thompson portrays a grieving widow and lone fisherwoman named Barb, who finds herself lost and stuck on the backroads near a lake in northern Minnesota due to a chilling blizzard. While trying to find shelter, she comes across a secluded cabin in the woods, unaware that her life is about to turn upside down. Soon after asking for help from the couple staying at the cabin, Barb realizes that they are holding a teenage girl hostage on the property.
Having interrupted the kidnapping, the loner must come up with a way to rescue the young girl from the murderous couple who are armed. Since the cabin is deep in the woods and miles away from the nearest town without phone service, Barb is the only hope for the captive against the kidnappers. Helmed by Brian Kirk, the action psychological thriller movie stars Thompson, Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca, and Laurel Marsden. The snowy winter setting of Minnesota reflects the harsh, chilling discovery the protagonist makes in the cabin, which serves as a shelter for her and a nightmare for the kidnapped girl.
Dead of Winter Filming Locations
Although ‘Dead of Winter’ is set in Minnesota, it was reportedly filmed in Finland and Germany, especially in Lieksa, Joensuu, Pielisjärvi, and North Rhine-Westphalia. From what we can tell, principal photography for the Emma Thompson starrer got underway in late February 2024 under the working title ‘The Fisherwoman’ and continued for about two months before wrapping up around late April of the same year. In a letter she shared with a local newspaper, Thompson acknowledged and praised the efforts of the Finnish crew to make the production a smooth process.
“The weather changed, as it always does and when the lake became wet, the snow team dragged sled after sled of fresh snow to cover over the thaw and maintain the continuity. If the weather was wet, they swept the watery sludge off the surfaces and replaced it with dry snow. If the weather was too snowy, they shoveled ton after ton of snow away from the shooting area. They were a great source of comfort and strength to us all, I think,” she stated.
Lieksa, Finland
In order to depict the blizzards and snowy terrain of rural Minnesota, the production team of ‘Dead of Winter’ set up camp in and around the municipality of Lieksa. To be specific, various exterior scenes in the snow were lensed within Koli National Park, which is home to a number of hills, white landscapes, and frozen lakes. In the same above-mentioned letter, Thompson also stated, “I had no idea how lucky I was but upon arrival in Koli, greeted by the piney, snow-laden sentinels that guard that magical hillside, I started to sense what a huge privilege and adventure this was to become.”
Although the shoot was far from easy and comfortable, the actor felt supported by the “extraordinary nature of the environment and the people.” She added, “From the moment I landed, I was met with kindness and warmth, with deep hospitality and humor by people who made my stay in Koli feel more and more like home.” She also opened up about shooting a fight sequence on a frozen lake, stating, “It didn’t matter that I was cold and had pulled every muscle in my body. The beauty sustained me, got me through, was the source of everything, somehow.”
Other Locations in Finland
For the purpose of shooting, the cast and crew members also traveled to other parts of Finland, including the city of Joensuu. In addition, the Pielisjärvi lake also served as a filming spot for ‘Dead of Winter.’ During a conversation with the Locarno Film Festival, the director Brian Kirk discussed the challenges posed by extreme weather conditions during production. He said they had to deal with four to eight feet of snow, revealing that they “had a dedicated snow team whose job was to compress the snow in all the areas where cast and crew needed to move, and then lightly dust it again to make it look untouched. That level of maintenance was constant.” However, he admitted that “the natural light was stunning; almost all of the daytime scenes were shot using only available light. I don’t think I’ve ever used so few lights on a production before.”
In an interview with Movie Fone, Judy Greer, who portrays the female kidnapper, also admired the work of the Finnish crew during the shooting process. “They were lugging all the film equipment on sleds up these snowy mountains to start the day and then down the snowy mountains to end the day,” he stated. “There’s a lot of layers of clothing. We got to sit in warming tents. They never did. As soon as they would put out hot coffee, it would get cold. I mean, it was just never ending, but it was also so beautiful. I mean, the first time I walked on that frozen lake, I couldn’t believe it. You can see it in the movie, but that is what we saw every single day. It was stunning for miles and like so quiet and peaceful and beautiful.”
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
The filming unit of ‘Dead of Winter’ also lensed various pivotal sequences in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. In order to tape the intense cabin scenes, they supposedly made the most of the facilities and studio spaces at MMC Studios Cologne, located at Am Coloneum 1 in the city of Cologne. Home to more than 20 sound stages, the film studio also offers a first-class infrastructure for the production of all kinds of projects. Besides the Brian Kirk directorial, it has served as a filming site for numerous other movies and shows, including ‘Stowaway,’ ‘American Sweatshop,’ ‘The Operative,’ ‘Operation Napoleon,’ and ‘Hindenburg: The Last Flight.’ Additional portions for the psychological thriller were also reportedly shot in the federal city of Bonn.
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