Kama comes home to Toruń: The filming locations of HBO's The Torment
The Torment
She left in disgrace. She comes back to a case that never closed. And the city she returns to is Toruń – which plays itself. The Torment – original Polish title Zmora – is a three-episode HBO Original Series based on the crime novel by Robert Małecki – one of Poland's most popular crime writers and former journalist.
The series follows Kama Kossowska, a disgraced journalist played by Magdalena Cielecka, who returns to her hometown of Toruń to investigate the unsolved disappearance of her childhood friend Piotrek. A reopened investigation and a new tragedy force her to seek a truth the city has been keeping quiet for years. Family secrets, passions and crime reveal that the past never falls silent.
Cielecka – winner of the Polish Academy Award for Best Actress for the 2023 historical drama Anxiety – leads a cast that includes Piotr Żurawski (The Eastern Gate), Łukasz Simlat, Piotr Głowacki, Dorota Kolak, Piotr Jankowski, Maria Pakulnis and Katarzyna Bujakiewicz.
The production filmed on location in Toruń in the autumn of 2024 – and unlike many crime dramas that use one city to stand in for another, Zmora makes no such compromise. Toruń plays Toruń. The city's UNESCO-listed medieval old town – its 13th and 14th-century brick architecture intact, the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus, the Gothic towers and narrow lanes of one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Central Europe – is the real setting of Małecki's novel and the real location of the production.
Continue reading below the ad
The crew arrived in Toruń's Old Town on Wednesday October 2, 2024, with the first filming taking place at the intersection of Żeglarska and Copernicus Streets. Over the following days, the production spread across multiple Old Town locations, causing traffic disruptions that were announced in advance by the city.
On Thursday October 3, Przedzamcze Street was closed to traffic from 10am to midnight. On Friday October 4, disruption extended to Filadelfijski Boulevard, with filming taking place off the road near Mostowa Street, and additional scenes in the vicinity of Św. Jakuba and Przedzamcze Streets. The crew returned to Przedzamcze on Monday October 7, again from 10am to midnight. Appropriate signage was installed at all locations to inform the public of traffic changes.
The production returned repeatedly to Przedzamcze Street – the historic street running alongside the ruins of the Teutonic Knights' castle above the Vistula. Scenes were also filmed inside the tenement house at 16 Przedzamcze Street.
Filming also took place in the area around the local bridges – the Vistula riverfront that gives Toruń its most atmospheric vistas, the medieval skyline reflected in the water below.
The Torment premieres on HBO Max on October 2, 2026.
SOURCE
IMDb // Toruń City Press // Torun.pl
CREDITS
© HBO
with our self-guided film walking tours
Discover how films are made, why locations matter and other behind-the-scenes stories.
download now, it's free!