A movie set provides the background to the characters’ lives. We seldom notice it unless it asserts an overwhelming presence that it seems to become a minor character in itself. What would Indiana Jones be without Cairo or Sex and the City without New York?

Aside from reading guidebooks and poring over online sources, travelers can have a better grasp of a destination by encountering it in a movie. It may not tell the whole story but it still gives an idea on what to expect in terms of landmarks, culture and its people. We choose five movies that best capture the feel and the spirit of the place in dramatic, oftentimes breath-taking sequence and convince us to experience it for ourselves.

Mumbai, India- Slumdog Millionaire

No other film has been able to capture the heart of Mumbai—from its sprawling slums to its towering skyscrapers—like the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. The movie follows the story an Indian boy from the slums, Jamal Malik who, together with his brother, travels to the countryside to escape a syndicate. The train journey reveals the color, noise and atmosphere of India and culminates with a trip to the country’s crowning glory, the Taj Mahal in Agra. We know how the story ends: Jamal wins 20 million rupees in India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, gets the girl of his dreams and does the Bollywood dance. But one thing reverberates: Mumbai and its haunting beauty and poverty.

 Ko Phi Phi Lee, Thailand- The Beach

An island where travelers go to forget their former lives seems to be the stuff an urban legend but in the movie The Beach, the island (unnamed in the film but is actually Ko Phi Phi Lee in Thailand) is all too real. The backpacking character of Leonardo di Caprio seeks to find it and encounters hassles along the way, such as a marijuana plantation guarded with heavily armed men. He eventually locates the island which has a community of travelers who abandoned civilization to commune with white sands, crystal blue waters, and breath-taking islets. But as events unfold, the beach life proves to be quite unsettling.

Tokyo, Japan- Lost In Translation

Filmed entirely in the fascinating yet strange city of Tokyo, Lost in Translation revolves around Charlotte, played by Scarlet Johansson, who feels a pang of alienation in the foreign country as she struggles to keep her marriage with a celebrity photographer. This loneliness leads her to the arms of Bob Harris (played by Bill Murray) who is shooting a commercial. Together, they explore the city’s manifold landmarks—glittering skyscrapers, a temple, a restaurant even a hospital—and try to temporarily adapt the Japanese culture. Travelers will automatically relate to the loneliness and culture shock the characters experience as they try to keep up with the foreignness around them.

Sahara Desert- The English Patient

Though the Sahara Desert has already been depicted in films before, The English Patient recasts it as a stage for one of the greatest love stories ever told. The movie, set towards the end of the Second World War, revolves around the memories of a critically burned man looked after by a nurse named Hana in an old Italian villa. As the patient reveals his actual identity, viewers are taken to the great Sahara Desert where the plane of the English patient (named Almaty) and his lover Katharine was crashed by the latter’s husband. To retrieve her body in a “cave of swimmers,” Almaty worked with the Germans for the supplies and the plane which the Allied Forces shoot down near the heart-wrenching conclusion.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-City of God

Soon to be under the Olympic spotlight, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is stripped of its glamour through the 2002 film City of God. Travelers who are dying to see the favelas but don’t want to end up dead can watch the movie set in the shanty town where the story unfolds: drugs, rape, murder are all present in the film. The film got its title from an actual favela named Cidade de Jeus, providing a unique insight into the desperately violent and poverty-stricken lives of Brazil’s majority.

USA- Borat

Yes, we know, it’s an odd ball, there are many other films that present the United States in a better light but how else can you see America differently than through the eyes of a Kazakh journalist? Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is a hilarious mockumentary that traces the trip of Borat from New York all the way to California in an ice-cream van to search for Pamela Anderson. Along the way, he gets to interact with evangelists, rodeo fans, college dudes, among others who give him a crash course on American culture. Not only are we given a sweeping view of this powerful nation but also its citizens who define it.

What other movies which have unforgettable places in them? Let us know what you think.