Ask questions or just talk about different languages. Since BrainKing is an international game site supporting many languages, this board can be kind of useful.
King Reza: As far as your original example says, "set in" is used as based in "the history and culture" and takes place suggests it is currently ongoing. take place is often used as "happen" or "occur" and the its usage is limited to intransitive verb phrases. That means someone cannot "take place" anything. While someone can "make it happen". SET IN is used as transitive phrase so someone can "set in" anything. As movie itself cannot take transitive verb form passive form can be used here.