Where Was ‘The Regime’ Filmed?

We never learn the name of the country Kate Winslet‘s Chancellor Elena Vernham rules over in HBO‘s new Sunday drama, The Regime, but her palace sure feels strangely familiar. Omnipresent leopards aside, the stately architecture of Elena’s palace evokes the opulence of old Europe and that region’s struggle to retake political prominence after the rise of the United States, former Soviet Union, and China.

“I was keenly aware that, especially in a lot of American storytelling, whenever people depict a foreign authoritarian regime like that, it tends to be the same kind of vaguely Soviet, kind of Russified, very Eastern thing. Very brutalist. Kind of just the feeling of the iron curtain weighing on your shoulders,” The Regime‘s creator and showrunner Will Tracy told Decider recently.

“I just I felt it was important that we situate the show somewhere more in kind of a landlocked, middle European [location]. The whiff of Habsburg to it, right?”

The Regime follows Corporal Herbert Zubeck (Matthias Schoenaerts) as he’s hired by the Vernham palace to follow the Chancellor around with a monitor for measuring moisture in the air. (Elena Vernham isn’t bothered that Zubeck murdered some protesters, but she is very worried about spores in the air.) Zubeck and Elena soon become mutually obsessed with each other, which inspires Elena to make some bold moves for her country…especially as it pertains to foreign policy.

So where exactly is The Regime set in the world? Where did HBO film The Regime? And is this bonkers satire based on a true story? Here’s everything you need to know about where The Regime was filmed and takes place…

Where Does HBO’s The Regime Take Place?

HBO’s The Regime takes place in an unnamed, fictional country in “Middle Europe.” Creator and showrunner Will Tracy explained to Decider that he liked “the idea that wherever this country was, it was somewhere geopolitically betwixt east and west…They could look behind themselves and see China and Russia and they could look ahead and see the NATO powers and, and somewhere across the Atlantic, America.”

According to Tracy’s the nation needed to feel like “they are a little ball that’s being tossed back and forth between the big hegemonic superpowers.” This lack of agency, at least when it comes to the nation’s role in international affairs, explains some of Elena’s own fears over her own inadequacy.

“In some sense she’s at like the kids’ table of world politics and she’s somehow not allowed to be the full self-actualized grown up head of state, that she maybe deep down suspect she’s not a serious enough person to be anyway,” Tracy said.

To capture this vibe, HBO made sure to pick a real world location that would evoke this mood…

Where Was HBO’s The Regime Filmed? The Regime Filming Locations: Schönbrunn Palace and the Liechtenstein City Palace, Vienna, Austria

HBO’s The Regime was filmed on location in Vienna, Austria. The Schönbrunn Palace served as exteriors for Elena’s own palace, while the show used various rooms in the Liechtenstein City Palace and the Pallavicini in Vienna for interiors. Original sets were also built in Austria.

“One of the reasons why I was keen on Vienna was not just because it had the look and feel of how I imagined this country might look and feel — a feeling of Europe gotten into decrepitude — but also that Vienna strangely has not been over-filmed,” Tracy said.

Tracy also revealed to Decider that the Schönbrunn was his original concept for The Regime‘s palace setting.

“I said, ‘What I have in my mind is palace that looks kind of like this, where it’s sort of on the outskirts of a major capital city, but doesn’t necessarily feel like it’s like right in the heart of the city. And it feels sort of grand and a bit baroque and it looks as though it’s been sort of added on to over the years,” he said.

Any time you see an exterior of the palace, it is the Schönbrunn Palace, although they’ve made some adjustments to its appearance in post so it’s not an identical match.

“It was just amazing being in those rooms and realizing that, ‘Oh, I’m with [director] Stephen Frears, who shot Dangerous Liaisons and The Queen.’ I mean, no one alive shoots inside palaces or has more experience in them than Stephen,” Tracy said. “And then of course, [director] Jessica Hobbs as well, who’s shot so much of The Crown.”

Is The Regime Based on a True Story?

Nothing in The Regime is real, but many of the events are inspired by the actions of real-life despots like Vladimir Putin. (Apparently Elena Vernham’s musical number in The Regime premiere is a riff on a viral Putin performance.)

However, during a recent press conference for The Regime, Will Tracy revealed that the initial germ of inspiration came from The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat by Ryszard Kapuściński. The nonfiction book weaves together details about the final days of Haile Selassie’s reign over Ethiopia from the perspective of people employed at the palace.