Close 2019 Filming Locations Morocco: Where It Was Shot

Close gave its Moroccan unit 29 days, and the crew landed two days after the UK wrap. Where was Close filmed? Casablanca and Marrakech, plus a private villa in the El Haouz hills that served as Zoe’s fortified kasbah. Those three names answer most searches for Close 2019 filming locations Morocco. Morocco plays itself in this one.

In this guide we break down what the production record confirms, which places appear only on the national film commission’s pre-shoot list, and how to see both clusters on a private route.

Morocco Playing Itself: The Shoot That Needed No Disguise

Close is a 94-minute thriller directed by Vicky Jewson and co-written with Rupert Whitaker. Noomi Rapace plays Sam Carlson, a close protection officer modelled on the real bodyguard Jacquie Davis. Sophie Nélisse is Zoe Tanner, the young heiress in her care, with Indira Varma as Rima Hassine and Eoin Macken as Conall.

Principal photography started at Pinewood and moved on location to London, Casablanca and Marrakech. A production-industry trade report says plainly that Morocco was used as itself, with no stand-in for another nation. Nothing here is dressed up as Libya or Iraq, unlike most foreign shoots in Morocco.

The mining company’s glass office is the most Moroccan-sounding interior in the film. It was shot at a country estate in southern England, against green screens, with a Moroccan view added in post. Our piece on how Morocco became a global backlot covers that doubling business, which Close skipped entirely.

Casablanca: The Streets, the Hotel and the Getaway

The chase runs through Casablanca. Sam and Zoe arrive by road, move on foot, take cover in a hotel room and end up at a marina. The production record confirms the city as a shooting location; it does not tie any of those beats to a named street. The plot still points you at the neighbourhoods worth walking.

Four areas of the centre are worth the walk:

• Downtown Art Deco: the facades along Boulevard Mohammed V and around the old Place des Nations Unies.
• The old medina: whitewash and narrow lanes a few minutes from the port gates.
• The port and marina: working docks, small boats and the mosque visible across the water.
• The corniche: the long seafront where the city walks at sunset.

The centre is compact enough to cross on foot in an afternoon, and the coastal road keeps the port in view most of the way. There is no marked set and no studio tour. If you are chasing Close Netflix filming locations with a camera, give this half a slow morning.

The El Haouz Hills: A Villa Dressed as a Kasbah

Zoe’s kasbah is the film’s set piece, and it is a villa. The production used a private luxury property in the Al Haouz Atlas foothills outside Marrakech, with a helipad where the finale’s helicopter lands. The commission’s list names El Haouz province. Nobody has published the address, and the property is closed to visitors.

That covers the confirmed half. Tahanaout and Amizmiz are the reported half: both sit on the film commission’s pre-shoot location list, and neither has a scene attached to it. The film itself does not signpost them.

The geography explains the schedule anyway. Tahanaout is 34.5 km from Marrakech, 35 to 50 minutes, where the Haouz plain lifts into the mountains. Amizmiz is another 30 to 40 minutes past it, near the Lalla Takerkoust reservoir. A unit on 29 days can reach either and be back for the evening.

The Atlantic Plain: El Jadida, Azemmour, Benslimane

Three more names from the same list sit on the plain around Casablanca, all within about 90 minutes of the city. None has a scene attached either, so treat them as landscape and coast, not as sets to visit.

Each one is an easy add-on to a Casablanca base:

• Benslimane: roughly an hour inland, cork-oak forest, farmland and a quiet provincial town on the Rabat road.
• Azemmour: about an hour and a quarter west, a whitewashed medina above the Oum Er-Rbia behind Portuguese walls.
• El Jadida: 106 km out, or 1 hour 25, home to the UNESCO-listed Portuguese city of Mazagan.

El Jadida and Azemmour are 15 to 20 minutes apart, so they make one loop rather than two stops. The painted murals in Azemmour’s lanes and Haouzia beach north of town fill out the day. Benslimane is the odd one out: it sits on the Casablanca to Rabat axis, which suits a separate morning more than the coastal drive.

Seeing Both Clusters on a Private Route

The two clusters sit 2.5 to 3 hours apart on the motorway between Marrakech and Casablanca, so decide which one you start with.

• Atlantic first: land in Casablanca, walk the downtown and the corniche, then El Jadida and Azemmour in the afternoon.
• Hills second: transfer to Marrakech, then out to Tahanaout and Amizmiz the next morning.
• The transfer: the A1 and A5 do the work, with an optional hour at Benslimane for the forest road.

A private driver solves what public transport cannot. The foothill towns sit on local roads with thin bus service, and the Atlantic loop needs a car waiting while you walk. The same distances that made a 29-day shoot workable make a two-centre trip easy.

If you want the Atlas leg handled for you, the 4-Day Morocco Desert Tour from Marrakech crosses these hills. The route continues to Ait Benhaddou and the Dades valley. For the film’s whole geography in one run, the 8 Days Tour from Casablanca to Marrakech covers both clusters. It starts in the first and finishes in the second.

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