Find Me Falling Was Filmed On This Sun Soaked Mediterranean Island

5 months ago

This Netflix romcom is reeling in millions of viewers

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With a whopping 14.4 million viewers in its debut week, Find Me Falling is Netflix’s sun-soaked romcom of the summer. Written and directed by South African Cypriot Stelana Kliris, it is a story of rekindled love, all set against the sunny backdrop of Cyprus. But where was Find Me Falling filmed? And can you visit for yourself? We’ve got the answers.

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Agni Scott as Sia and Harry Connick Jr. as John in Find Me Falling.

Where Was Find Me Falling Filmed?

Netflix’s Find Me Falling was filmed in Cyprus from May–November 2022. Specific filming locations include Peyia (also spelled Pegeia) – a town in Paphos, with John’s remote house located up in the hills near Coral Bay – and Nicosia, the nation’s capital, on the other side of Mount Olympus. When John goes skinny dipping, however, we’re looking at Titsiros/Pezounospilioi Beach, located on the island’s east coast.

‘This film is a love letter to Cyprus, and I hope that it transports audiences and gives them a little bit of magical escapism,’ writer and director Kliris says. ‘Plus, there was nothing better than walking out on set on a cliff overlooking the endless blue horizon of the Mediterranean Sea. You can’t ask for a better view from the office!’

A beach in Cyrpus, as seen in Find Me Falling

Paphos

Paphos is a popular tourist spot in Cyprus thanks to its beautiful gulfs, coves and sandy beaches. Find Me Falling makes the most of the area’s dramatic cliffs, with John’s house perched atop a cliff near Coral Bay, in a Paphos town called Peyia. Nearby, White River Beach was also used.

While John’s home was a set built for the film, his holiday home would not be a rarity here: many second homes are found dotted across these steep slopes.

Nicosia

Nicosia (also known as Lefkosia) is the capital and largest city in Cyprus, situated inland, close to the middle of the island. This is where Find Me Falling’s local village scenes were filmed: in a neighbourhood called Kaimakli.

With Cyprus split into Turkish and Greek halves in the north and south respectively following Turkey’s illegal invasion in 1974, Nicosia is where this boundary is found and monitored by the UN, with Turkish Cypriot communities found in the north of Nicosia, and Greek Cypriot communities found in the south.

Geopolitics are not the point of Find Me Falling, though, says Kliris. ‘It’s a very important issue and we live with it every day, but it shouldn’t define us,’ she tells Today. ‘It isn’t the only thing about Cyprus. We are so much more than this invasion. For people to even care about that, they need to know where Cyprus is. This film is a nice, light introduction to our home. I think once people know where Cyprus even is on the map, then we can delve into deeper issues.’ With the film’s star Harry Connick Jr admitting he didn’t know where Cyprus is before signing on to the project, we think this comment is targeted at Netflix’s majority-American audience…

Ali Fumiko Whitney as Melina and Harry Connick Jr. as John in Find Me Falling

What Is Find Me Falling About?

Find Me Falling follows American rock star John Allman (Harry Connick Jr.) who is desperate to retreat from his dwindling career following a flop album. ‘He’s this grumpy kind of misanthropic guy who’s depressed and impatient and he decides to just separate himself from society,’ says Connick. ‘He’s had enough of his kind of dwindling career and rock and roll and decides to move to this remote island and get a remote house on a remote cliff on that island.’

He holes up in his new villa to embrace his solitude – only to discover the cliff edge just beyond his front door is a suicide hotspot. No wonder the house was so cheap.

As John gets to know the local community, he bumps into Sia (Agni Scott), a Cypriot woman from his past – and the two rediscover each other against a stunning island backdrop.

‘This is a love story about many kinds of love: romantic, family, lifelong dreams, and what you’re willing to sacrifice for the people or the things you love,’ Kliris says. ‘John essentially has to decide whether the love of his life is his music or the woman he left behind.’

Ali Fumiko Whitney as Melina in Find Me Falling

Who Stars?

Harry Connick Jr. as John Allman, a rockstar past his peak
Agni Scott as Sia, a Cypriot woman who knew John in the early days of his career
Ali Fumiko Whitney as Melina, an aspiring singer
Tony Demetriou as Captain Manoli
Angeliki Philippidou as Marikou
Lea Maleni as Koula
Athina Roditou as Anna
Clarence Smith as Jimmy

‘You can have all the bells, whistles and gags that you want, but without real substance, you can’t connect with your star-crossed lovers,’ says Kliris. ‘You also need characters – and the actors who play them – that people will fall in love with. Find Me Falling certainly has both.’

Harry Connick Jr. as John in Find Me Falling

Who Wrote ‘Girl On The Beach’?

At the heart of Find Me Falling is John’s hit track of days gone by, ‘Girl on the Beach’ – which he wrote back when he knew Sia originally. Connick, who plays John and is a musician in real life, wrote and performed ‘Girl on the Beach’ especially for the movie. ‘Stelana [Kliris] wanted one of the songs to be the hit song that my character would have had in the early nineties,’ Connick explains. ‘It has to be about this girl on the beach that he meets. So, the name of the song is ‘Girl on the Beach,’ and it sounds like one of those early U2 tunes.’

But that’s not all: the song ‘Find Me Falling’ was also penned by Connick, but performed by Ali Fumiko Whitney as Melina. ‘The second song had to be something more poetic and melodic,’ Connick says ‘It was fun writing a piece of music in response to what she thought the script needed for another character. I wasn’t writing for myself – it’s a song I would sing, but it was just a fun different way to approach songwriting.’