The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a German silent horror film from 1920, began as a script by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, both shaped by World War I. Mayer had feigned madness to avoid military service, and the psychiatrist who examined him inspired the title character. The producer Erich Pommer bought the script for a modest fee because he thought it could be filmed cheaply. The studio then added a frame story, a prologue and epilogue that presents the main story as a madman's flashback. Janowitz later called this a violation that drained the film's political meaning. The original script, rediscovered and published in 1995, also had a frame story, though a different one, which undercut the critic Siegfried Kracauer's argument that the frame was added to glorify authority.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.