Some people discover their dream destination through travel. Others find it on a screen.
There’s something quietly powerful about a film that makes you pause, look around your living room, and think: why am I not living like that? The rolling hills of Tuscany. The whitewashed island walls of Greece. The sun-drenched vineyards of Provence. Cinema has always sold us a version of the world that feels more alive, more colourful, more free.
And for a growing number of people, that feeling doesn’t stay on the sofa. It turns into research. Then into inquiries. Then, sometimes, into a second passport.
Here are seven films that genuinely shifted how people think about where they live — and what they could do about it.
1. Mamma Mia! (2008) — Greece
Few films have made an island look this irresistible. Shot mostly on the Greek island of Skopelos, Mamma Mia! didn’t just become a global box office hit — it turned a quiet Aegean island into one of Europe’s most-visited film tourism destinations practically overnight.
Visitor numbers to Skopelos surged after the film’s release. Tourism contributed an estimated 31.5% of the Greek islands’ GDP by the late 2020s, with film tourism playing a notable role in that growth. The emotional appeal is obvious: crystal-clear water, sun-baked whitewash, a pace of life that feels almost medically beneficial.
Greece also happens to offer one of Europe’s most accessible Golden Visa programs, requiring a minimum real estate investment starting at €250,000 in certain zones. Residency through that route opens pathways to eventual EU citizenship. Whether or not a viewer consciously connected the dots between the film and Greek residency by investment, the emotional groundwork was clearly laid.
2. Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) — Italy
Based on Frances Mayes’ memoir, this film follows a recently divorced American woman who impulsively buys a villa in Tuscany and rebuilds her life. The real Bramasole villa in Cortona was subsequently renovated by actual Americans inspired by both the book and the film. That alone says something significant.
Property inquiries in Tuscany spiked after the film’s release. UK and US buyers started showing serious interest in Italian rural properties — many citing the film as a direct inspiration. Italy’s Residency by Investment program, alongside tax incentive schemes like the flat-tax regime for new residents, has made the country genuinely attractive for those wanting more than a holiday home.
The film tapped into something that resonates deeply: the idea that it’s never too late to start over somewhere more beautiful.
3. Eat Pray Love (2010) — Bali and Italy
Julia Roberts travelling through Italy, India, and Bali in search of herself became one of the defining lifestyle narratives of the early 2010s. The impact on Bali was measurable — tourist arrivals to the island reportedly increased by over 340% in the years following the film’s release.
Indonesia doesn’t offer a citizenship by investment program, and long-term residency options remain limited. But Italy, which features prominently in the film’s opening act, does. The film planted seeds of a particular kind of wanderlust — less about luxury, more about reinvention — that many viewers channelled into genuine relocation research.
For viewers drawn to the Italian chapters, the country’s Golden Visa program remains an accessible route to European residency for non-EU nationals willing to make qualifying investments.
4. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) — India
A group of British retirees relocate to India after being lured by the promise of an affordable, exotic retirement. The film resonated enormously with older audiences reconsidering what retirement could look like — and where it could happen.
Film tourism to Jaipur increased noticeably after its release. Several hotels in Rajasthan began actively marketing themselves to guests inspired by the film. India doesn’t offer a traditional citizenship or residency by investment route, but the film helped normalise the idea of retirement migration to a non-Western country — something that was still fairly niche in 2011.
The broader idea the film promoted — that financial constraints don’t have to limit where you live — remains deeply relevant. Many countries with strong CBI or RBI programs, including several in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, offer structured pathways for those seeking more affordable but high-quality living environments.
5. Midnight in Paris (2011) — France
Woody Allen’s love letter to Paris romanticised expat life in France for an entirely new generation. Owen Wilson wandering through 1920s Paris in golden-hour light made the city look less like a place and more like a feeling — one that many viewers decided they wanted to live inside.
Paris remains one of the most searched destinations for potential expat relocation among English-speaking audiences. France’s immigration options are more talent and investment-focused than traditional CBI programs, but the demand the film generated was real and documented through location tourism spikes and lifestyle blog traffic.
What Midnight in Paris did particularly well was sell the identity of living abroad. Not just the food or the architecture, but the idea of becoming someone who lives a different kind of life. That identity shift is, in many ways, what drives interest in second passports and residency programs in the first place.
6. A Good Year (2006) — Provence, France
Russell Crowe inheriting a vineyard in Provence and abandoning his London banking career for the slower rhythms of French countryside life struck a chord with viewers exhausted by their own professional grind. The film didn’t perform particularly well at the box office, but it developed a devoted following — particularly among people already contemplating a lifestyle change.
General expat interest in Provence increased in the years following its release. Lifestyle blogs and property forums frequently cited the film as an inspiration for their contributors’ French property searches. The appeal of wine country living, warm summers, and a radically different pace was presented without irony and it landed.
7. Chocolat (2000) — Rural France
A mysterious chocolatier arrives in a sleepy French village and gently disrupts everything. Chocolat offered a deeply romantic vision of village life in France — unhurried, rooted, full of texture and character. Lifestyle writers and bloggers have cited it repeatedly as a personal touchstone for aspirations to live somewhere slower.
The film’s influence is largely anecdotal, but anecdotes accumulate. It became part of a cultural vocabulary around the fantasy of leaving behind urban stress for something more grounded — a narrative that maps fairly directly onto what investment migration consultancies hear from clients every day.
From Fantasy to a Real Second Passport
Films move people emotionally. Investment migration programs move them legally.
The gap between those two things is smaller than it might seem. Many people who eventually pursue a second passport or Golden Visa trace the original inspiration to a feeling — a film, a holiday, a conversation — rather than a spreadsheet. The emotional pull comes first. The practical research follows.
Countries like Greece, Italy, Portugal, Malta, and several Caribbean nations all offer structured citizenship by investment (CBI) or residency by investment (RBI) programs. Some, like St. Kitts & Nevis and Malta, offer some of the world’s most established citizenship pathways. Others, like Portugal and Greece, offer EU residency with eventual citizenship options.
If any of the above films resonated enough to make the idea of living somewhere else feel real, the practical next step is expert guidance. For those seriously exploring citizenship or residency by investment options, you can click here to access Global Residence Index — a specialist consultancy with a strong track record across both CBI and Golden Visa programs, working directly with government bodies across Europe, the Caribbean, and beyond.
The life those films are selling? It’s more achievable than most people think.
