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Hungarian Edition
American actress Elle Fanning has been filming scenes for the upcoming WWII drama The Nightingale in the heart of Budapest’s District V, temporarily transforming parts of the Hungarian capital into Nazi‑occupied Paris of the 1940s.
Residents strolling along Museum Boulevard these days may have felt as though they had stepped back in time. Vintage street signs, French‑language labels, and period‑accurate props took over the neighborhood as production crews recreated wartime France for several scenes of the film.
For the shoot, Henszlmann Imre Street was renamed Rue d’Estelle, and the corner building was transformed into a period‑style French café called Café du Chat Bleu, with a bookstore next door. The public restroom in Károlyi Garden was turned into a newsstand for the duration of filming.
The film will star sisters Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning, who are appearing together on screen for the first time and are also producing. Michael Morris is directing from a screenplay by Dana Stevens, adapted from Kristin Hannah’s global bestseller The Nightingale about two sisters navigating survival, resistance, and love in Nazi‑occupied France.
During the shoot, Elle Fanning was seen entering the recreated bookstore while extras walked and cycled through the street around her in period costumes. In another scene she was seen looking out of a window, while several shots were taken inside the building, away from the public eye.
Budapest has doubled for France and other European locales in international productions on many occasions, thanks to its mix of Belle Époque architecture, historic cafés, and wide boulevards that resemble Paris. District V in particular remains a favorite among filmmakers because of its historic buildings and the charming Károlyi Garden.
