Naman Shrestha
Co-written and helmed by Maciej Bochniak, ‘Freestyle’ is a Polish crime action film that stars Maciej Musiałowski as an up-and-coming rap star who has left behind his criminal past to pursue his dream of making it big as a hip-hop artist. However, the pursuit of his dream is marred when he runs out of cash and can’t get enough time in the recording studio.
Forced by the circumstances, the rising rap star sets up a risky and consequential drug deal that could cost him his career as well as his life. Besides Musiałowski, the hip-hop film also features impressive performances by Michał Sikorski, Nel Kaczmarek, Jakub Nosiadek, Filip Lipiecki, Olek Krupa, and Roman Gancarczyk. As the thrilling storyline unfolds in a variety of different backdrops, the audience is likely to wonder where ‘Freestyle’ was filmed.
Freestyle Was Filmed Across Poland
‘Freestyle’ was filmed in Poland, specifically in and around Kraków. Production on the hip-hop-based film reportedly got underway in July 2022 and seemingly wrapped up after a month or so, by the end of August of the same year. Without wasting any time, let’s traverse through all the specific sites where the protagonist rapper risks his everything in the Netflix production!
Kraków, Poland
All the pivotal sequences for ‘Freestyle’ were reportedly taped in and around Kraków, located on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Considered one of the oldest cities in Poland, Kraków has come a long way as it has grown from a Stone Age settlement to the nation’s second-most-important city as well as a prominent filming site with diverse and picturesque landscape. The underground rapping scene is merged with the shady drug business in different eerie-looking places, both indoors as well as outdoors.
Many key exterior portions were seemingly recorded in the historic central district of Kraków Old Town. One of the most famous old districts in all of Poland, Kraków Old Town has a rich cultural and historical significance as it is home to about six thousand historic sites and over two million works of art, some of which you might be able to spot in the backdrop of some scenes. There are several other local landmarks and attractions in Kraków that may or may not feature in the movie, including the Sukiennice Cloth Hall, the Wawel Castle, the National Art Museum, the Zygmunt Bell at the Wawel Cathedral, the Czartoryski Museum, the Archaeological Museum of Kraków, and the medieval St. Florian’s Gate.
As for the interior sequences such as the rap concerts and recording studio sessions, they were possibly shot on a sound stage or two of one of the film studios located in and around the city. Apart from ‘Freestyle,’ Kraków has hosted the production of a number of film and TV projects. Some of the notable ones are ‘Dark Crimes,’ ‘Spies of Warsaw,’ ‘Under a False Name,’ ’11 Minutes,’ ‘Beautiful Blue Eyes,’ and ‘Prime Time.’
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