{"id":326,"date":"2018-02-27T13:50:02","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T14:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/?p=326"},"modified":"2025-07-11T14:35:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T14:35:54","slug":"movie-magic-six-movies-shot-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/27\/movie-magic-six-movies-shot-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Magic: Six Movies Shot in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/div>\n

I’m a self-confessed movie enthusiast and African aficionado and it gave me much pleasure to put together a list of movies filmed in Africa. Do you know any? Hold on to your popcorn, travellers, some are easy to spot but others may just surprise you!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Mad Max: Fury Road<\/h3>\n

    The movie is set in a dry, post-apocalyptic world, so it only makes sense to film the story in a desert. But here’s the funny bit: Australia’s outback turned lush with flowers after unexpected rains, moving the set to Namibia’s<\/a>\u00a0legendary Namib Desert<\/a>. The only changes made to Namibia’s natural beauty was the colouring of sand to a yellowish shade.<\/p>\n

    Bonus point: <\/strong>Charlize Theron accidentally broke Tom Hardy’s nose on set with her elbow.\"sunset<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Blood Diamond<\/h3>\n

    This story is set in Sierra Leone and exposes the brutality of illegal diamond mines. It was difficult to film in Sierra Leone because of civil unrest and insufficient infrastructure.\u00a0Mozambique<\/a> and its capital, Maputo<\/a>, provided the backdrop for the country instead. The illegal diamond mines and American places were filmed in South African cities of\u00a0Cape Town<\/a> and Port Edward in KwaZulu-Natal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \"Table
    Image credit: Alexander Hill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Bonus point: <\/strong>In KwaZulu-Natal, the crew were careful not to disturb the ecosystem while filming.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    The Last King of Scotland<\/h3>\n

    This movie is centered around\u00a0Uganda<\/a>\u00a0during the 1970’s while it was under the brutal regime of dictator, Idi Amin.\u00a0Staying true to the story, most scenes were\u00a0filmed in\u00a0Kampala<\/a>, Uganda’s capital. To prepare for the role, Forest Whitaker learned to speak Swahili and even met Amin’s siblings for a first-hand account of their famous brother.<\/p>\n

    Bonus point: <\/strong>Forest Whitaker stayed in character full time for three months, even offset.<\/p>\n

    \"Panoramic
    Image credit: Achim Prill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  4. \n

    District 9<\/h3>\n

    This movie made South Africans beaming proud\u00a0with seven BAFTA awards and four Academy Awards. Filmed in Johannesburg<\/a>\u00a0and Soweto<\/a>, the story is inspired by South Africa’s history of Apartheid but with a sci-fi twist.\u00a0 Scenes of the informal settlements in the movie are actual homes that were previously evacuated. District 9 certainly gives a close-up view of Gauteng’s cities – except for the huge spaceship.<\/p>\n

    Bonus point: <\/strong>Out of the entire cast, William Allen Young is the only actor who is not South African.<\/p>\n

    \"Skyline
    Image credit: Felix Lipov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  5. \n

    Invictus<\/h3>\n

    This movie is set in 1995 when South Africa<\/a> won the Rugby World Cup. Nelson Mandela was the first black president of a newly democratic country and\u00a0 South Africans banded together at this iconic match after decades of racial separation. The movie is filmed at Ellis Park Stadium (now known as Emirates Airline Park Stadium) where the match was won. Cape Town’s Robben Island<\/a> also features when the rugby team visits Mandela’s prison cell where he spent 27 years.<\/p>\n

    Bonus point:<\/strong> Morgan Freeman watched this movie with Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n

    \"Robben
    Robben Island with Table Mountain in the background- Image credit: South African Tourism<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  6. \n

    Hotel Rwanda<\/h3>\n

    Based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed hundreds of Rwandans of Tutsi ethnic minority to keep them safe during the country’s genocide. Hotel Rwanda was mostly filmed in the capital, Kigali<\/a>, while a few scenes were also filmed in Alexandra informal settlement in Johannesburg<\/a>.\u00a0Hotel Rwanda won 13 different awards between 2004 and 2005.<\/p>\n

    Bonus point:<\/strong>\u00a0The producers created the International Fund for Rwanda in 2005 to support genocide survivors.<\/p>\n

    \"A<\/p>\n

    Did any of these surprise you? Let us know in the comment section below!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’m a self-confessed movie enthusiast and African aficionado and it gave me much pleasure to put together a list of movies filmed in Africa. Do you know any? Hold on to your popcorn, travellers, some are easy to spot but others may just surprise you! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheap-flights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rehabtours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}