Peacehaven, East Sussex

Peacehaven unfolds as an unremarkable coastal settlement along the chalk cliffs of East Sussex, its weathered bungalows clinging to the slopes overlooking the English Channel. The sea air carries the blunt tang of brine mingled with diesel fumes from the intermittent ferry traffic to Newhaven, while the wind whips across concrete promenades that crack under the salty damp. A haphazard grid of narrow lanes bisects the town, their curbs lined with parked vans belonging to the film crew transforming the landscape into Thoros Beta. A closed amusement arcade’s garish lights bleed into the twilight, reflecting off the corrugated iron of temporary dressing rooms pressed against the town’s single parade of shops. The absence of real indigenous detail in the makeshift alien set only underscores the artificiality of the enterprise—this is a place momentarily hollowed out to become something else, its quiet corners forced into service as an intergalactic political thriller’s backdrop.