State Museum at Majdanek

Where was ‘A Real Pain’ Filmed? All the locations from Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin’s Polish Road Trip Movie

Described as a sombre and little-known former concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, this site is treated in the film and its production with marked sensitivity and reverence. Eisenberg notes that permission to film there was initially discouraged but ultimately granted because the screenplay depicted Majdanek as it is now and reflected that his own family is from there, making it the setting for a deeply moving, unsentimental centerpiece. Culkin recalls that between set-ups everyone was very quiet, and Eisenberg emphasises that every practical aspect of filmmaking—lighting, blocking and more—was carried out with the utmost reverence and sanctity. For visitors aged 14 and over, the State Museum at Majdanek offers two-and-a-half-hour tours of the camp, framing it as both an educational institution and a place of profound memorial. - Phil de Semlyen