Netflix’s Dutch Thriller iHostage‘s Real-Life Filming Location Isn’t Actually Where You Think It Is
Dutch crime thriller iHostage has climbed to the top of the Netflix charts with its story about a hostage situation. The movie, directed by Bobby Boermans, follows a man, Ammar Ajar, who takes hostages inside an Apple store. Yes, you read that right, an Apple store. Technology sure has changed everything these days, even the places where standoffs with police take place, it seems.
But the most ironic part about the movie iHostage—and isn’t the title even more ironic now that you get it—is that it’s actually based on a real-life story that made pretty big news at the time. Yes, the film is inspired by a real-life hostage crisis that took place in Leidseplein, Amsterdam, on February 22, 2022, when Abdel Rahman Akkad held everyone inside an Apple store hostage.
Does that mean that the film follows exactly what happened in that particular situation? Was it filmed in exactly the same place? Where was iHostage filmed in Amsterdam?
Where was iHostage filmed in Amsterdam?
iHostage was indeed filmed in Amsterdam, specifically in Leidseplein and Katwijk. Principal photography for the movie began in the middle of February 2024 and wrapped by the end of March 2024, with all of the outdoor locations being shot in real outdoor locations. A pretty quick shot, which tends to happen when you can film in the city you’re supposed to be in.
But did it film in the actual Apple store where the real-life hostage situation took place? The answer is sadly no. Due to legal issues and a lack of required permissions to film not just inside an Apple store but *the* Apple store from the real-life hostage situation, the movie had to recreate the location. Makes sense, but it is quite a bummer.
However, almost all the outdoor scenes were indeed shot in Leidseplein, in central Amsterdam. The Apple store the movie was trying to recreate is located at Hirsch & Cie, Leidseplein 25, 1017 PS. But to make it as authentic as possible, the team filmed the area around the store, including the streets, the rooftops, and the buildings overlooking it, to give a sense of how police would access the store in a hostage situation. So, everything you see from the outside was filmed right outside where it happened.
The production also consulted with the local police, the municipality, and the municipal transport company GVB (Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf) to give a sense of how a high-profile situation like this would be handled.
Where did they film then, and how did they recreate the Apple store? In an airplane hangar in Katwijk. The entire area of Leidseplein was scanned and recreated indoors to allow filmmakers to get the scenes with the criminal, the employees, and the customers without creating too much of a disturbance in the center of such a busy city as Amsterdam. So, in the end, it looks very realistic and most of it was filmed in the place where it happened, but movie magic was also used to make it as seamless as possible. As close as it gets, let’s say.
