As one of the 12 entries chosen for the Best Nordic Documentary competition at the 36th edition of Nordisk Panorama in Malmö, Sweden, the Finnish flick Shadowland [+lee también:
crítica
entrevista: Otso Tiainen
ficha de la película] has gained yet further recognition since its national premiere in late 2024. From the very start, this account of an esoteric group of people gathering in the French Pyrenees in order to practise various forms of magic and witchcraft has had quite a buzz around it. One of the main reasons is the central presence of notorious cult filmmaker Richard Stanley; added to that are a series of unexpected twists, both within the story and also outside of the filmmakers’ control. We sat down with director Otso Tiainen, whose exploration of this universe became rather a bumpy ride.

Cineuropa: Up until Shadowland, you had mainly been working on music documentaries for television. What led you to become a feature-film director?
Otso Tiainen: After a career in adverts, I created and directed three seasons of the music travelogue series Sami Yaffa: Sound Tracker, which was funded by YLE and was acquired by Netflix for some territories. That experience led me to this one. It was a fascinating subject and, eventually, turned out to be perfect timing. I have always been interested in subcultures, eccentric communities and people on the fringes of society. I admit to having known almost nothing about Richard Stanley as a film director before starting on this project. What was interesting about him was the same element that made all of the other people in the film compelling: he was reinventing himself in this region after a trauma. Of course, his background was interesting, but for a long time, what was psychologically more attractive was Stanley’s need to hold on to his identity as a filmmaker. When we started professional production on this project, his comeback into filmmaking seemed as if it would give the story a perfect arc. But someone’s status as a filmmaker alone does not make them interesting.

Shadowland has quite a reputation for undergoing a number of twists, not at all invented by the filmmakers. There was the comeback of Stanley the filmmaker, there was the COVID-19 outbreak, and there were allegations of abuse and violence levelled at Stanley, resulting in a court case. How did you manage to navigate through all of this and turn it into a finished work?
It was very draining to build a film on top of another film that never came to be. But being able to adapt to change is essential in documentary filmmaking. Once we realised that the real story was about how people in this milieu reacted to the revelations, we knew where to focus. Still, it took years to investigate, uncovering the truth behind all the false leads, and pull everything together.

The film had its national Finnish premiere in November last year. Since then, it has done some healthy travelling. Would you say these aforementioned “twists” have contributed to its success?
Shadowland has been shown at a number of genre festivals, from Beyond Fest in Los Angeles to Motel X in Lisbon, and it was in the international competition at the Krakow Film Festival and is now in the Best Nordic Documentary competition at Nordisk Panorama. During our theatrical release in Finland, we visited some smaller towns to present the movie. The audiences have been very diverse and approached the film from different angles, but everywhere we’ve travelled, people have been very receptive. Shadowland’s story goes off in many directions, and while people might wish for a happier tale, I believe they still leave the cinema feeling optimistic.

You now have this very eventful journey behind you, perhaps thankfully. Are you planning something new at the moment?
There is a project we’re developing. All I can say at this point is that it takes place on two continents, and deals with history, inequality and popular culture.

Finally, what gave you the idea for the title Shadowland?
First of all, it’s a great title, isn’t it? Apart from the obvious metaphor, those Pyrenean valleys are literally a world of shadows. It also pays tribute to a certain work of literary history, specifically the cult Peter Straub horror novel of the same name from the early 1980s, and this extends to much of what we explore: this subculture and community draw as much from works of fiction as they do from spirituality, magic and religion.