Where Was ‘The Lost Daughter’ Filmed?

The Lost Daughter, which is now streaming on Netflix, is a portrait of the least relaxing vacation ever.

Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who also adapted the script from Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name, the film tells the story of Leda Caruso (Olivia Colman), a professor on holiday in Greece who becomes fascinated by a young mother (Dakota Johnson) staying nearby. Leda is bombarded by unhappy memories of her own past as a young mother struggling to raise two daughters.

That said, creeping anxiety and guilt complexes aside, the location of Leda’s vacation is properly gorgeous. The ocean sparkles in the sunlight and lush green trees pave the pathway down to the beach. The town where Leda spends her evenings is quaint and friendly, with cobblestone streets.

So where exactly was The Lost Daughter filmed? Read on to learn about The Lost Daughter filming locations—and about the unusual story behind the production, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

WHERE WAS THE LOST DAUGHTER FILMED? THE LOST DAUGHTER FILMING LOCATIONS:

The Lost Daughter was filmed on the Greek island of Spetses in Attica, Greece. Gyllenhaal’s original script took place in the U.S., and production designer Inbal Weinberg was initially planning for an east coast vacation in a Cape Cod-esque beach town. But pandemic restrictions forced the production to go international, so Gyllenhaal adjusted her script accordingly.

In an interview for The Lost Daughter press notes, Weinberg said, “Strangely, when Maggie adapted the film from the US to Greece, literally she only had to change a few words. Somehow the bones of it were already meant to be there.”

Pandemic restrictions made it impossible for the crew to come and go once they arrived on the island of Spetses, which means that even the flashback scenes that were meant to take place in America were filmed in Greece. For the scene where a young Leda and her family take a vacation in the mountains, a green screen was used.

“Everything had to be shipped in,” Weinberg said. “I think we searched for a stove for literally a month, because there are no stoves in Greece that look like American stoves.”

For the apartment, the crew transformed unused rooms in an 18th-century school on the island into an apartment set. “The first time the crew went into the apartment, they were mesmerized, because you’re on a Greek island. Then you open this door, and you’re in New York or in Boston. I was really proud of that.”

Watch The Lost Daughter on Netflix