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

Guy Ritchie's The Covenant seeks to capture the Afghan Mountains' high deserts but was actually filmed in a more Mediterranean environment.

Guy Ritchie's The Covenant is a modern action-war drama set in the Taliban-controlled Afghan wilderness. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Sergeant John Kinley, a war-hardened soldier whose interpreter had been killed in a car bombing. Seeking a new interpreter, John Kinley reluctantly hires the aid of Ahmed (Dar Salim). Ahmed quickly proves his worth when he singlehandedly saves an injured Kinley after a disastrous ambush by the Taliban. After returning to civilian life stateside, Kinley is tortured by the idea of abandoning the man who saved his life and resolves himself to procure Ahmed and his family's safe egress from the Taliban-ravaged country.

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.

4 Alicante - Spain

It's rather comical 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 at first blush. 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.

3 Sax - Spain

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 Covenant's outdoor locations. 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

Further up the coast from Alicante is the picturesque seaside town of Villajoyosa, or La Villa Joiosa. A colorful and vibrant 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. Giving the film a large-scale action set piece and its proximity to an urban center makes Amadorio Reservoir an ideal location for The Covenant movie.

1 Zaragoza - Spain

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 absolutely necessary 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.