The Hunger Games is back to greet its fans through a film prequel entitled The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Set 64 years before Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) played in The Hunger Games (2012), this film tells the story of Coriolanus Snow’s (Tom Blyth) youth.
Snow, who wants to restore his family’s glory, decides to become a mentor for the participants in the 10th Hunger Games. Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) from District 12 was “chosen” to be a tribute or participant mentored by Snow. Snow made various efforts to ensure that Lucy Gray won the deadly competition.
Apart from starring a series of talented leaders and an exciting storyline, the choice of filming location also attracts the attention of the audience. Curious about where?
Quoting from various sources, check out the review of the filming locations for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes below, come on!
1. The Centennial Hall, Wroclaw
The Centennial Hall in the city of Wroclaw, Poland, is described as the interior of the main arena where the 10th Hunger Games was held. When it was about to start, there was a terror that blew up the building, but the competition continued.
The Centennial Hall is a historic building designed by architect Max Berg which was built in 1911-1913. At that time, Wroclaw was part of the German Empire. In 2005, the building was designated a Polish National Historic Monument (Pomnik historii) and the following year it became part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
2. Olympiastadion, Berlin
If The Centennial Hall is described as the interior of the arena for the 10th Hunger Games, then the Olympiastadion located in Berlin is the exterior of the arena. With a touch of CGI technology, the front and gates of this complex look darker and more eerie when “welcoming” the Hunger Games players.
Olympiastadion or Olympic Stadium is a stadium located in the Olympiapark complex in Berlin, Germany. The stadium was built on the initiative of Werner March for the 1936 Summer Olympics and is now home to the Hertha BSC club, and is used for various sporting activities and other performances.
3. Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, Duisburg-Meiderich
In all the sequels to The Hunger Games, District 12 is depicted as the smallest and poorest area in Panem. The majority of the population works as coal miners and in the pharmaceutical industry. This is where Lucy Gray and her Covey group lived until she was finally selected to be a participant in the 10th Hunger Games.
The location where District 12 was shot is actually Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, a public park located in Duisburg-Meiderich, Germany. Before becoming a park, this place was a coal and steel production factory which had been abandoned since 1985.
In 1991, Latz and Partner repaired and redesigned this complex, so that German people would not forget its history and become a tourist attraction that anyone could visit.
4. Rheinisches Industriebahn-Museum, Cologne
The Rheinisches Industriebahn-Museum is described as a train station where Coriolanus Snow and Lucy Gray first met. Snow welcomed Lucy by giving her a white rose and introducing himself as her mentor. Instead of accepting it, Lucy took the flower petals and ate them.
Located in Cologne (Köln), Germany, the Rheinisches Industriebahn-Museum is a museum that preserves and exhibits various products of the German railway industry, especially locomotives produced by the Deutz company in Cologne and locomotives from the Arnold Jung locomotive factory from Kirchen-Jungenthal an der Sieg.
5. Britzer Garten, Berlin
Once they arrived at the Capitol, the participants in the 10th Hunger Games were immediately taken to trucks and dropped off in a barred cage located in the Capitol Zoo. Lucky Flickerman (Jason Schwartzman) introduces them to the Capitol residents live from the front of the cage.
In real life, the cage set was built in the middle of the Britzer Garten, a city park located in Berlin. The park was built for the Bundesgartenschau (federal parks show) in 1985, and provided a new landscape park for residents in West Berlin who at that time could not get out into the surrounding countryside.
6. Zalew Grzedy
When Coriolanus Snow is sentenced to become peacekeeper in District 12, he arranges a meeting with Lucy Gray and her friends at a lake located on the edge of the forest. This place is quite safe from the reach of other peacekeepers, because only the Coveys know about it.
The lake where Snow and Lucy Gray met is called Zalew Grzędy which is located in Krzeszów, Poland. This lake is often used by local residents as a place for recreation, such as fishing and camping. The atmosphere is calm and access is quite easy to reach.
7. Völkerschlachtdenkmal, Leipzig
Völkerschlachtdenkmal appears in several important scenes of the film. The interior is the setting for Coriolianus Snow being “tried” by Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage) because he was caught cheating while helping Lucy Gray win the 10th Hunger Games.
Völkerschlachtdenkmal is a monument and the largest war memorial in Europe, located in Leipzig, Germany. This monument was built in 1913 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig (1813) between the Coalition of Russian, Prussian, Austrian and Swedish armies against Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops.
Those are the filming locations for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes in Germany and Poland. If you have the opportunity to go to these two countries, you can include the places above on your holiday bucket list. Where do you want to go first?
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