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🇲🇹 Malta & Gozo

Shot in Malta

Malta has been a film backlot since the 1950s. Its forts, Mdina and the Grand Harbour have stood in for Rome, Jerusalem, Troy, Marseille and King’s Landing. Below: 21 productions in order, then the 23 places you can still walk to.

🚗 Renting a car in Malta: rules, parking, the Gozo ferry and a two-day film drive

A Song of Ice and Fire Jurassic World Gladiator The Count of Monte Cristo Midnight Express Popeye

Malta on screen

Oldest first, with what Malta played. The sets are mostly gone; the stone is not.

⛔ Fort Ricasoli is a working film backlot, not a visitor fort. See it across the harbour mouth from Valletta's Lower Barrakka Gardens or Fort St Elmo.

  1. 1950s

  2. 1953

    Malta Story

    Malta as itself

    The wartime siege, shot where it happened: the Grand Harbour, Valletta and Mdina. A war film, not a backlot.

  3. 1970s

  4. 1978

    Midnight Express

    Malta as Istanbul

    Turkey refused permission, so the prison was built in the old garrison stores of Fort St Elmo and the credits say the film was made entirely in Malta. Istanbul backgrounds were grabbed by a small crew posing as a cigarette-commercial unit. The airport arrest is the old Luqa terminal, not the one you fly into.

    📍 Fort St Elmo 📍 Dominican Priory, Rabat 📍 Is-Suq tal-Belt (Merchants Street market) 📍 Sacra Infermeria 🗺️ All Midnight Express locations
  5. 1980s

  6. 1980

    Popeye

    Malta as Sweethaven

    From June 1979 about 165 workers built 19 wooden houses and a breakwater at Anchor Bay, Mellieħa. It was meant to come down. It stayed, as Popeye Village: the only film set on this page you can still walk through.

    📍 Popeye Village 🗺️ All Popeye locations

  8. 1987

    Iron Warrior

    A sword-and-sorcery romp shot all over the islands, from Mnajdra and Dingli Cliffs to Anchor Bay, with parts at Fort Ricasoli a year before Black Eagle.

    📍 Fort Ricasoli⛔ 📍 Popeye Village

  9. 1988

    Black Eagle

    The first feature the Malta Film Commission names at Fort Ricasoli: Van Damme's climactic fight. Dock and boat scenes in the Grand Harbour, best seen from the Upper Barrakka Gardens.

    📍 Fort Ricasoli⛔
  10. 1990s
  12. 2000s

  15. 2004

    Troy

    Malta as Troy

    The city's streets were built inside Fort Ricasoli and later dismantled. More scenes at Mellieħa and Comino's Blue Lagoon.

    📍 Fort Ricasoli⛔

  16. 2005

    Munich

    Malta as Tel Aviv, Rome, Beirut and Athens

    The one that uses ordinary towns: Valletta, Sliema, Rabat and Buġibba. The tell is a Maltese balcony in a scene that claims to be somewhere else.

  17. 2009

    Agora

    Malta as Alexandria

    The biggest set ever built on the island: ancient Alexandria, at Fort Ricasoli and in the Valletta ditch.

    📍 Fort Ricasoli⛔
  18. 2010s

  20. 2013

    Captain Phillips

    Port scenes at the Malta Freeport, a working container port (not open to visitors).

  21. 2013

    World War Z

    Malta as Jerusalem

    About three weeks in Valletta in 2011. The wall the crowds climb is Fort St Elmo, dressed as Jerusalem's.

    📍 Fort St Elmo

  22. 2015

    By the Sea

    Malta as a French seaside village

    The whole village was built at Mġarr ix-Xini bay, Gozo.

  24. 2017

    Murder on the Orient Express

    Malta as Jerusalem

    Jerusalem on Valletta again, four years after World War Z, for Poirot's opening case.

    📍 Fort St Elmo
  25. 2020s

  27. 2023

    Napoleon

    Malta as Toulon

    Ridley Scott back on the limestone: the siege of Toulon at Fort Ricasoli, imperial streets in Valletta and Mdina. Mdina's gate and the cathedral square are the walkable part.

    📍 Fort Ricasoli⛔

Filming Corridors

Follow themed routes through Malta's filming locations. Each corridor groups sites by production or geography for a day trip or multi-day journey.

🎬 All Corridors

Game of Thrones, Gladiator, Valletta, Gozo, Mdina and more.

🚗 Car Rental Guide

Two-day driving route + practical road tips.

Where to stand

Valletta & Floriana

Church of Our Lady of Liesse

Valletta

  • Jurassic World Dominion (2022): Valletta rooftop

Fort St Elmo

Valletta

  • Midnight Express (1978): Sağmalcılar prison (played by Fort St Elmo), Sağmalcılar prison gate (played by Fort St Elmo)
  • The Count of Monte Cristo (2002): Marseilles

Grandmaster's Palace

Valletta

  • The Count of Monte Cristo (2002): On the way to the Count

Is-Suq tal-Belt (Merchants Street market)

Valletta

  • Midnight Express (1978): Istanbul souk (played by Merchants Street and St Paul Street)

Sacra Infermeria

Valletta

  • Midnight Express (1978): Section 13 asylum ward, Istanbul (played by the Sacra Infermeria), Prison visiting room, Istanbul (played by the Sacra Infermeria)

St George's Square

Valletta

  • Jurassic World Dominion (2022): Valletta, Malta

St Ursula Street

Valletta

  • Jurassic World Dominion (2022): Valletta, Malta

Victoria Gate

Valletta

  • Jurassic World Dominion (2022): Valletta, Malta

The Three Cities & Kalkara

Birgu waterfront (Xatt ir-Risq)

Birgu

  • The Count of Monte Cristo (2002): Port of Marseilles

Fort Ricasoli

Kalkara

  • Game of Thrones (2011): King’s Gate — Gate of the Gods, Red Keep outer gate
  • Gladiator (2000): Rome, The Colosseum, The Colosseum arena floor
  • Gladiator II (2024): The Colosseum, Rome, Gladiator cells
  • Black Eagle (1988): Climactic fight, 1988.

Fort St Angelo

Birgu

  • Jurassic World Dominion (2022): Malta

St Lawrence's Church, Birgu

Birgu

  • Jurassic World Dominion (2022): Malta rooftops

Triq il-Mandraġġ, Birgu

Birgu

  • Jurassic World Dominion (2022): Black-market entrance, Malta

Mdina & Rabat

Dominican Priory, Rabat

Rabat

  • Midnight Express (1978): Istanbul courtroom (played by the priory cloister), Istanbul courtroom, the resentencing

Mdina Gate

Mdina

  • Game of Thrones (2011): King’s Landing main gate, King’s Landing streets / farewell

Mtaħleb Cliffs & Valley

Rabat

  • Game of Thrones (2011): Dothraki encampment, Khal Drogo's funeral pyre

Pjazza Mesquita

Mdina

  • Game of Thrones (2011): Littlefinger's brothel and the street skirmish
  • The Count of Monte Cristo (2002): Mdina streets

Vilhena Palace

Mdina

  • Gladiator II (2024): Rome

Gozo & Comino

Dwejra / Azure Window site

San Lawrenz, Gozo

  • Game of Thrones (2011): Dothraki wedding shore
  • The Count of Monte Cristo (2002): Island of Montecristo

Saint Mary's Tower

Comino

  • The Count of Monte Cristo (2002): Château d'If, Château d'If, after the escape

Around Malta

Fort Manoel

Gżira

  • Game of Thrones (2011): Great Sept of Baelor — execution plaza
  • Gladiator II (2024): Gladiator school

Popeye Village

Mellieħa

  • Popeye (1980): Sweethaven harbour, The Oyl family boarding house, Sweethaven streets and wharf

San Anton Palace Gardens

Attard

  • Game of Thrones (2011): Red Keep gardens

A footnote: the Majestic in Valletta was the island’s first colour cinema, and many of these films first played there. Plotlander is made in Malta by the family that ran it.