Tabernas Desert (Alméria, Spain)
Tabernas Desert (Alméria, Spain)
Between the 1950s and 2020, more than 300 films have been shot in the Tabernas Desert in the Spanish province of Almeria. Its great natural settings are most famous for the so-called “Spaghetti Western” films of the 60s and 70s.
The central figure of this golden age of the European Western was Sergio Leone with his mythical Dollars Trilogy that brought Clint Eastwood to international fame with A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964), FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965) and THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY (1966). This was followed by Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST and Edward Dmytryk’s SHALAKO (both 1968), 100 RIFLES by Tom Gries (1969), EL CONDOR by John Guillermin (1970) and RED SUN by Terence Young (1971), and many, many others, among them some from the Bud Spencer and Terence Hill saga.
The desert has also been the setting for major international productions such as LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962), CLEOPATRA (1963), CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982), INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) or EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS (2014), as well as series such as DOCTOR WHO, BLACK MIRROR or GAME OF THRONES.
Among more recent productions are 800 BULLETS by Álex de la Iglesia (2002), Jan Kounen’s RENEGADE (2003), Philippe Haïm’s LUCKY LUKE AND THE DALTONS (2004) or Jacques Audiard’s THE SISTERS BROTHERS (2018).
On the other hand, Tabernas hosts the Almería Western Film Festival, the only one of its kind in Europe that annually gathers amateurs and professionals in relation to the Western, highlighting the environment of the desert as a cinema destination, for tourism and for the film industry.
