Romain Gavras shot his satirical thriller Sacrifice across Greece, Bulgaria, and Iceland from November to late December 2024. Most scenes take place in a working marble quarry in Drama and on the volcanic rim of Santorini. He also filmed at Peiraios 260 in Athens, near the docks of Lavrio, and inside Prohodna Cave in Bulgaria. He avoided soundstages whenever possible.
| Scene | Location | Area | Details from Set |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charity Gala. | Volakas Marble Quarry. | Drama, Greece. | Shot in an open pit. Charli XCX sang on the rocks while 400 people stood in tuxedos. |
| Volcano March. | Nea Kameni Crater. | Santorini, Greece. | Shot on a volcano rim. Because cars are banned, donkeys carried the heavy camera packs. |
| Activist Camp. | Prohodna Cave. | Karlukovo, Bulgaria. | Set in a huge cave. Sunlight pouring through ceiling holes lit up the cast. |
| Interior Sets. | Peiraios 260 Arts Center. | Athens, Greece. | An old desk factory in Tavros used to build sets and run stunt practices on bare floors. |
| Harbor Shots. | Port of Lavrio. | Attica, Greece. | An old port used to load up crew boats, stage gear, and shoot out on the water. |
| Volcanic Visions. | Grindavík Fissure. | Reykjanes, Iceland. | Drone clips taken over hot lava vents during an eruption in May 2024. |
The marble quarry in Drama
Early in the movie, a billionaire named Ben Bracken throws a lavish black-tie party. Gavras chose not to build the party on a studio soundstage. Instead, he took his team up to Volakas on Mount Falakro. People who live there call it the Carrara of Greece. The sheer rock walls go straight up from the ground, cut with dark grey veins.
Nearly 400 people stood shivering in black tuxedos and ballgowns on the rocky steps. High stone walls towered over them. Down on the gravel floor, pop singer Charli XCX sang live as Mother Nature. The sound crew did not want to re-record her voice in a studio later. Instead, they caught her singing right on the spot. The tall stone faces bounced her voice around like an echo hall while the camera crew walked over loose rocks in the cold. Working in an active mine was tough. They checked in with the miners each night to keep everyone safe.
Santorini and Nea Kameni
When Joan leads her captives out toward their final stop, the story heads south to the Greek islands. Gavras took his cast to Nea Kameni, a dark volcanic island sitting in the middle of Santorini’s bay. It smells of hot smoke all day. There is not any shade to hide under. And nobody can bring a car or a truck onto the island.
Getting camera gear up a steep hill without trucks meant doing things the old way. They hired strings of local pack donkeys to carry the packs. Meanwhile, Taylor-Joy and Evans walked up the path on foot each morning. That was a long, hot climb through dust and smoke from the vents. Park guards also watched every step they took. At the end of each day, the crew hauled their gear back down. They could not leave a single mark on the rocks.
Prohodna Cave
For the hideout where Joan’s group meets, Gavras crossed the border into Bulgaria. He took his team to Prohodna Cave near the small town of Karlukovo.
The cave has two giant holes in the ceiling that locals call the Eyes of God. Sunlight falls straight down through the rock in bright beams. His cinematographer, Matias Boucard, noticed right away that he did not need big lighting trucks inside the cavern. At midday, light pours through the roof like stage spotlights. He used that daylight for his dialogue scenes, letting the bare walls catch the actors’ whispers.
Peiraios 260 and the port of Lavrio
Not everything was just rock and ash. For indoor sets and stunt rehearsals, the crew set up a base at Peiraios 260 in Athens. The building was an old desk factory back in the 1970s. Today, it hosts stage plays during the local arts festival. Its big warehouse floor gave Gavras all the room he needed to put up sets and try out stunt moves.
For scenes by the sea, they drove down to the port town of Lavrio. It sits on the southern tip of the peninsula. Lavrio has deep stone docks and old brick buildings that gave them room to dock their boats and film along the water. Curious about more Greek movie backdrops? Read our guide to the filming locations of Love of Your Life.
Volcanic drone footage in Iceland
Gavras first considered filming his volcanic scenes on location in Iceland. But the winter schedule brought deep freezes and only four hours of sun a day. That idea did not pan out. So he moved the main shoot down to Greece instead.
Still, authentic Icelandic lava made it into the cut. In May 2024, a volcanic crack opened up near Grindavík on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula. Gavras acted fast. He sent drone pilots straight to the site to fly cameras over bubbling red lava fountains. In the edit, that raw footage became the fiery visions that haunt Joan in her thoughts.
Production details
Putting a movie like Sacrifice together across three countries took some clever work:
Local funding helped a lot. The producers teamed up with a Greek group called Heretic Films to tap into the EKOME program. That gave them a 40% cash rebate on their local production spending.
Custom lenses for the quarry. Boucard wanted the quarry walls to look tall and straight. He picked wide-angle lenses made just for the shoot so the straight cut lines in the stone would not bend on camera.
Strict cleanup on the volcano. The local park board was firm about keeping Nea Kameni clean. The crew could not drive any vehicles there. Each night, they hauled out every cord and bottle so the park stayed spotless.
Questions and answers
Did they film Sacrifice on location or in a studio?
They shot almost all of it out in the world. He built a few indoor sets in an Athens warehouse. Outside of that, Gavras took his cast to a marble mine in Drama, a volcano in Santorini, and a cave in Bulgaria.
Can tourists visit the Volakas marble quarry?
No. Volakas is a working mine and stays shut to the public for safety. But you can still walk the public trails on Mount Falakro that look down on the white pits from up high.
Did the actors walk up the volcano?
Yes. Cars are banned on Nea Kameni. Taylor-Joy and Evans walked up the trail on foot each morning while donkeys carried the heavy packs behind them.
