The Grand Budapest Hotel was shot in Germany. Anderson set the story in a fictitious Eastern European province known as  ŻZubrówka. It is based on a real-life brand of Polish vodka. It is a common feature of Wes’s film to incorporate vague historical and geographical references that originate from either reality or fantasy. This creates a sense of reality merging with fantasy which takes the audience on an immense journey of emotions. Wes’s trusted cinematographer, Yeoman mentioned in an interview  “Wes prefers to draw from real-world references to create his own world,” In this film, for example, the Fascists in power aren’t specifically Nazis, but they certainly could be interpreted that way taking into consideration the film takes place in 1968. The film’s historical significance is that it supplies its  non-western audience with insightful information about the western culture. This includes  customs, traditions, language and attire.

Western films are known to be popular among many cultures this evokes the possibility that Wes Anderson is attempting to communicate western culture to non-western people. He  visually demonstrates there is more that unites us rather than separates us. This fits in with the time period since people were facing a time of division. Wes Anderson had revealed that the author Stefan Zweig inspired his film. Stefan Zweig was known as  ‘the world’s most translated author. However, then he began to fade into irrelevance in the English-speaking world. This is common as western ideologies overshadow non-western ideologies.  Stefan Zweig’s background is relevant to the narrative of the film  as he was a Jew living in Germany during the time.