Shadowland

There has always been a tendency amongst people who consider themselves highly civilised, with comfortable lives contingent on social conformity, to imagine that true wisdom lies beyond the boundaries of the world they know, in undeveloped places or amongst peoples whom their peers regard as primitive. This has perhaps reached its apogee, however, in European and North American populations during the past century and a half. The seeking after spiritual growth which has flourished during the breakdown of established ideas about religion has seen wanderers gradually coalesce around a number of locations which they imagine to be particularly conducive to divine connections – places where, as some would say, the veil between worlds is thin. One such place is hidden in the heart of the French Pyrenees, and this documentary will take you there.

However you look at it, this is a borderland – caught between France and Spain and ancient Basque country. It’s the place to which the last of the Cathars fled centuries ago, before they were massacred for their perceived heresy. Some of the people we meet in this film, though their beliefs are different, see themselves as heirs to the Cathar tradition. There are elements of borrowed ritual, sympathetic commemoration, empathy with outsiders. These are people with diverse ideas but they are united by a common pursuit: they all hope to find themselves here, or to get in touch with some deeper reality.

There’s Uranie, the self-described sorcerer, discoursing on light and dark paths from a cautiously amoral perspective. There’s Iranon, the chaos magician, making viewers party to both philosophy and practice. And there’s the high priestess Anaiya, with her two devoted attendants, who spend most of their time in silence but sometimes laugh alongside her with sisterly warmth.

There is also Richard Stanley. As a filmgoer, you may find his name familiar. He’s the director of 1992 cult horror film Dust Devil, co-writer of 2017 festival favourite Replace, and writer/director of the 2019 take on HP Lovecraft story Color Out Of Space. He too found himself drawn to this place. In an early scene, he talks about having seen a ghost there, in a ruined tower. There have been Marian apparitions in the area for centuries, we’re told, but the identity of this particular figure is unclear. At any rate, he reinvented himself; in the film itself, we see him go through a kind of baptism at the hands of Anaiya. There are some things, however, that can’t be washed away.

“This is a witch hunt actually led by witches,” Stanley proclaims when the allegations come out – first from a former girlfriend, and then from two other women. Though he says that he doesn’t like to use the term, he refers to his accusers as hysterical. Director Otso Tiainen gives him plenty of room to state his case – or to condemn himself, depending on how viewers interpret what they see. Is he charming and charismatic or unstable and petulant? Other testimony is added to flesh out the story, and other residents of the area – which he refers to as ‘the Zone’ – share their thoughts. Soon there are lawyers involved.

Tiainen copes impressively with a film which swerves far off its original course, and what emerges is more interesting for the diversion. It creates an opportunity to explore the power relationships that form in spaces like this, to reflect on the different personality types they tend to attract and on the potential for various forms of exploitation. There’s enough variety among the subjects to keep it from becoming dismissive, and most viewers will find someone they can relate to, but it highlights the vulnerability of many people who turn their backs on mainstream society, and the risks involved in building communities reliant on trust. This, in turn inevitably forces people to question some of the supernatural reports we have heard. How much can they be relied upon?

The idyllic setting, with its wooded mountains and bright streams and centuries-old villages, adds plenty for the eyes to enjoy whilst all this is going on. By night, Tiainen finds a magic of his own in the deep shadows surrounding the ruins, tempting viewers to seek out the uncanny. By day, a short-tailed black cat weaves in and out of shot like a messenger between worlds. We are invited to look at the familiar in a different way.