Review: Shadowland
by Olivia Popp
- Otso Tiainen conducts an examination of director Richard Stanley, living in a French Pyrenees town populated by people engaged in magical and spiritual practices
Two-thirds exploration of the mystical and one-third examination of allegations against a genre filmmaker, Shadowland is a peculiar beast rendered occasionally tonally odd by circumstances out of the filmmaker’s control, but as a result, it is probably unlike any documentary you’ve seen this year. The film, directed by Otso Tiainen, representing his first feature-length documentary effort, and penned by Tiainen and producer Kalle Kinnunen, is set in the French Pyrenees town of Montségur, where we follow South African-born horror director Richard Stanley (Color Out of Space, Hardware, Dust Devil) after leaving Hollywood and witness a number of singularly strange developments. Shadowland had its world premiere at the 2024 edition of Los Angeles’s BeyondFest in October and will enjoy a theatrical release in Finland starting on 29 November, courtesy of Elke.
Tiainen’s film opens with an ethereal, if not otherworldly, voice-over introducing the setting for the movie, which does require some heavy contextualisation. Just outside of the southern French town is the Château de Montségur, crafted through legend as a site where the Holy Grail once stood and the old stronghold of the Cathars, a medieval splinter Christian sect who came to their untimely death in 1244 by being burnt en masse at the château. And then, we meet the dreadlocked Stanley, who has made Montségur his new home, becoming a bit of a local legend.
Tiainen, at first, seems genuinely curious about the comings and goings of Stanley and his white-magic friends, including mage Iranon, mystic Anaiya Sophia as well as the late Uranie – whose death Stanley somewhat eerily remarks as potentially an indirect cost for the creation of his most recent film. Montségur gives off the feeling of the occult more than a cult, but Stanley seems to have other ideas. He gladly admits to preparing – or perhaps grooming – Anaiya Sophia to become the new leader of the Cathars. He sees the new Cathars as requiring a woman leader whom he can then manipulate from behind the scenes, already revealing flashes of his misogynistic attitude.
Tiainen floats through Montségur and its beautiful landscape with impressive access, making it clear that the Pyrenees attract people for a reason. Viewers are privy to various spells cast by Iranon, who seems to be the most opinionated and spiritually bold of the bunch, while Anaiya Sophia prefers to engage in group exploration with others. Something darker appears to exist here, as conveyed through the cinematography by Max Smeds and Peter Flinckenberg, but it looks like Stanley is the one to have brought it in.
A cinematic shift occurs when Stanley’s former personal and professional partner Scarlett Amaris emerges with her account of the filmmaker’s domestic abuse in 2021. This blinding revelation seems to have completely upended the film, which immediately about-faces to focus on this. Tiainen adjusts his cinematographic distance; but even so, he captures some truly incredible statements from Stanley, to whom he still has access. Beguilingly, Stanley continues to be brutally honest to the camera, blaming “hysterical women” for “surreal and hallucinatory” accusations and a “#MeToo movement scandal in which the forces vested against us are also being directed by witches and magic users”.
For most of the film, Shadowland plays as a fascinating mood piece – we aren’t expected to buy into or try to understand the residents’ magical practices. It is simultaneously a unique portrait of a region full of engrossing magical tradition and a biting look at Stanley through his own words, but the narratives compete for attention, making both feel somewhat incomplete. With the turn, Tiainen releases a flurry of narrative threads into the movie but doesn’t neatly tie up any of them, leaving us wanting more of the original idea. But for those of us who are historically and mystically inclined, Shadowland unlocks plenty of doors to begin our own emotional journey.
Shadowland is a Finnish production by Helsinki-based Bufo.
