One of an occasional series on film and TV locations around the world.

Most of the famous The Hunger Games saga has been shot in the USA, either in North Carolina or Atlanta. But the entire cast and crew of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 moved last year to Berlin to shoot some crucial scenes in a city whose past eerily echoes the plot of this futuristic saga.

During the Hollywood Foreign Press Association stay in Berlin for the world premiere of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 we had the opportunity to discover some of the movie’s locations in the city. Come with us on a tour of the places that became Panem in Mockingjay- Part 2.

First stop: The Kraftwerk plant.

Located in Köpenicker Strasse in Mitte, Berlin, the abandoned building was the perfect location for Beetee’s weapons training facility in District 13. Director Francis Lawrence, loved the size and scope of the place. He also apprecaited the almost complete absence of doors and windows in one of the building’s galleries, enabling the addition of a second row of columns to make the space even more magnificent. The Kraftwerk plant was used as a power plant in East Berlin while the Wall was still up. Now the building is empty and only some hungry ghosts have so far ventured in the area. Their energy, however, was gone once two Buddhist monks fed the unruly spirits. An altar is still there with food and candles in case sthe spirits decide to reappear. The Kraftwerk plant was also chosen as the perfect venue for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 World Premiere after party.

Second stop: Tempelhof airport.

No longer an airport since 2007 the Tempelhof main building and adjacent structures are located in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg area of Berlin. Considered one of the largest buildings in the world, Tempelhof was built as an airport in 1923. In the mid-1930s the Nazi government practically rebuilt the facility, giving it an aesthetic that was part classicism, part brutalism – exactly what Lawrence was looking for his movie. As he explained, size and scope is something you can’t replicate even with the best VFX so he was enchanted when his team found a real environment to dress up as District 2. Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth also shot there some underground sequences using the many tunnels under the main building to replicate the subway under the Capitol. Another reason to visit an impressive building that acquired iconic status as the center of the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. Now some of Tempelhof hangars are used as emergency refugee camps.

Rocío Ayuso