Midsommar: Every Filming Location In Ari Aster’s Movie

2019 folk horror film Midsommar, directed by Ari Aster, was filmed in a variety of locations. The film centers on Dani Ardor (Florence Pugh), who is traumatized after her sister kills herself and their parents. Dani accompanies her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and his friends to a midsummer celebration—which occurs only once every 90 years—at the Hårga, a fictional location in Hälsingland, Sweden.

Of course, once the group gets to the commune in Sweden, things start to feel off. Dani, Christian and the others are given psychedelic mushrooms, and Dani suffers from hallucinations. Eventually, the group witnesses an “ättestupa”—a tradition in which two commune elders kill themselves be leaping off a cliff onto a rock. Disturbed, the group wants to leave, but they decide to stay a little longer so one of them can finish his thesis. Little by little, Dani’s mental state deteriorates, at the same time that the commune begins to wreak havoc upon the group.

Most of Midsommar takes place in Sweden, but its short opening sequence takes place in America. The scenes that take place in Dani’s cramped Brooklyn apartment were indeed actually filmed in Brooklyn, New York. And some of the other early parts of Midsommar, like the scenes that follow Christian and his friends, were shot in Utah; that’s also where Aster also shot his first film, Hereditary.

Midsommar Was Largely Filmed In Hungary (Not Sweden)

Though the majority of Midsommar takes place in Sweden, it wasn’t filmed there at all. Rather, it was filmed on the outskirts of Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Reportedly, Swedish law would have restricted film crews from shooting for more than eight hours per day there. Plus, Ari Aster said in multiple interviews that he decided to avoid shooting the movie in Sweden due to financial constraints. “I realized we couldn’t afford to make this film in Sweden, so we decided to shoot in Hungary,” Aster said during an interview with Vulture. “We were scouting for a long time to find the right field, and I was also still desperately working on the shot list … I got through three-fourths of the shot list and we found a village that worked for the movie.” 

That village, and its surrounding areas, was where much of the film was shot, including the now infamous maypole dancing scene. In an empty field, the set designers built the farmhouse-esque structures that Dani, Christian and the rest of the group stay in. Aster made strides in trying to make the set in Hungary seem authentically Swedish; he worked closely with a Stockholm-based production designer, Henrik Svensson. The two of them traveled to the actual region of Hälsingland, where the fictional commune in the movie is located, to conduct extensive research. The farms of the area were a large inspiration for the look and design of the movie. In an attempt to make the village seem authentic, Aster cast actual Swedish actors as the Hårga villagers and flew them out to Hungary.

The main cast members ended up having a difficult time filming in Hungary. William Jackson Harper, The Good Place star who plays Josh in the movie, told EW: “It was hard, it was hard. I mean, we were basically in this field all day, every day. It was hot, and there were wasps and spiders, these big weird spiders, with these green abdomens, that I had never seen before that I was sure was going to kill me. So, it was tough, it was a very arduous shoot.”

Ultimately, filming near Budapest turned out to be the right choice for Midsommar; the rolling, grassy hills of Hungary resemble a Swedish landscape. Budapest is often used as a location for film sets, mostly because the city and its surrounding areas are so versatile and convenient; the urban downtown area isn’t far from fields, wilderness, and waterfronts, which provided the perfectly picturesque backdrop.

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