Where Was The Covenant Filmed? Filming Locations For Guy Ritchie's War Movie Explained (2024)

Guy Ritchie's The Covenant was filmed in a variety of locations that helped bring the setting of Taliban-occupied Afghanistan to life — and considering how immersive the 2023 movie is, it's amazing that it wasn't even filmed on the same continent. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Sergeant John Kinley, a war-hardened soldier who hires a local interpreter, Ahmed (Dar Salim), who saves an injured Kinley after a disastrous ambush. After returning to civilian life, Kinley is tortured by abandoning his companion, and so resolves himself to rescue Ahmed and his family from the Taliban.

With a heavy focus on the high desert environment and its many dangers, The Covenant was surprisingly filmed in the rather temperate Mediterranean. Despite the large, continent-spanning scope of the movie, the majority of The Covenant was primarily shot in a singular Spanish province. Utilizing clever framing and location choice, director Guy Ritchie and cinematographer Ed Wild were able to perfectly encapsulate the desperate Afghan countryside and its many remote villages. Filming began in February 2022 and wrapped later that same year.

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4 Alicante - Spain

Filling In For The Hilly Landscapes Of Afghanistan

It is interesting to consider the harsh deserts of Afghanistan being replaced with the Mediterranean coast, in the rather temperate spring no less. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant manages to maintain the illusion, however, keeping the viewers' suspension of disbelief aloft. A beautiful coastal city in the southeast of Spain, Alicante seems like a strange choice to represent Afghanistan at first.

A popular tourist and vacation destination, Alicante could not be further from Afghanistan in both its purpose and personality. The surrounding countryside of Alicante is a fairly temperate hilly desert featuring all the hallmarks of a movie seeking to capture the visual identity of the Middle East. While the city of Alicante itself resembles almost nothing from Taliban-occupied Afghanistan, the natural landscape of the region has many similarities to the ruggedness of the Middle-Eastern mountains and hills.

3 Sax - Spain

Provides The Rocky Terrain For Guy Ritchie's Story

Some forty minutes inland to the northwest of Alicante is the municipality of Sax, a small community shadowed by its eponymous Sax Castle that sits prominently on a hill overlooking the small village. A sandy and remote location with a countryside full of vast, empty acreage of rocky desert made it the perfect set for many of the outdoor locations The Covenant's cast traverses. The sparse, roaming hills allowed careful shooting to completely omit any of the surrounding Spanish architecture from the scenes and allow the filmmakers to keep the desolate tone of the film intact.

2 Villajoyosa - Spain

A Key Filming Location For The Covenant's Climax

Further up the coast from Alicante is the picturesque seaside town of Villajoyosa, or La Villa Joiosa. This colorful and vibrant The Covenant filming location serves as a central point of action during a firefight involving multiple helicopters at Duranta Dam. Standing in for the Afghan Dam, however, is the Amadorio Reservoir just outside Villajoyosa, helping extend the film's authenticity to its inspired locations.

The Amadorio Reservoir sits conveniently just north of Villajoyosa, making the production a breezy 20-minute car ride from the town to the location. The location provides a memorable large-scale action set piece for The Covenant's ending sequence.

1 Zaragoza - Spain

The Location For Scenes Set At A Military Base

Lending some military legitimacy to the war drama is the Zaragoza Air-base (Base Aerea de Zaragoza). Using the Spanish Air and Space base's exterior infrastructure allowed production to keep up the facade of Middle-Eastern deployment without ever stepping foot outside of Spain.

To the films' detriment, however, are the occasional prominent Spanish churches or cathedrals that occasionally pop up in the background, an unwelcome distraction to the attentive viewer. As with any military-based action film though, settings like these are essential for grounding a point of contact for the cast and characters.

The Covenant delivers on giving its audience a tense, intimate examination of the human elements involved in the decades-long conflict in Afghanistan and its surrounding territory. Even more surprising that this was accomplished after Guy Ritchie banned real weapons on set during filming. Proving he still has an excellent directorial eye, the seasoned writer-director kept the movie lush and interesting despite its rather sparse environments. In the end, Guy Ritchie's The Covenant serves as an example of smart, budget-conscious filmmaking with fantastic use of smaller-scale locations.

Guy Ritchie's The Covenant

R

Action

Drama

War

Guy Ritchie's The Covenant is an action-packed war drama film that follows two men caught in the middle of Afghanistan trying to extract themselves from the conflict safely. After Sergeant John Kinley and his interpreter Ahmed are ambushed, Ahmed saves John's life. However, upon learning that Ahmed and his family will be left behind despite promises from the United States to bring them back, John returns to the battlefield and save his family before the pursuing Taliban catch them.

Release Date

April 21, 2023

Director

Guy Ritchie

Cast

Jake Gyllenhaal , Dar Salim , Antony Starr , Alexander Ludwig , Sean Sagar , Bobby Schofield , Emily Beecham , Jonny Lee Miller

Runtime

123 Minutes

Writers

Ivan Atkinson , Marn Davies , Guy Ritchie

Studio(s)

STXfilms , Toff Guy Films

Distributor(s)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer