Richard Stanley

The Secret of Otto Rahn - Relic Hunter

The nineteen thirties, Nazi Germany. Organisations like the Nordische Gesellschaft and the Thule Gesellschaft were researching the origin of the Germanic people, the Arian race. Obsessed with the ancient cultures which connected their ancestors, they searched all corners of the earth trying to find relics and remains of these old civilizations. Relic hunter Otto Rahn seached for the Grail treasure. Here, in Occitania.

Rahn visited Occitania many times and stayed for months at the time during 1929 - 1932. In '32 he leased a hotel called 'Les Maronniers' in Ussat-les-Bains. On the photo we see him entertaining his mother in the garden of the hotel. He is wearing a sweater which his mum nitted for him, showing the symbol of the Thule Gesell-schaft of which he was a member. When the hotel went bankrupt, he had to leave France.

Поскольку о Граале говорится и пишется много, каждый ищет что-то значимое для себя. Самое загадочное здесь то, каким образом эта священная реликвия вообще оказалась связанной с альбигойцами? Ведь мы знаем так же и рассказ о том, что Иосиф Аримафейских лично отвез Чашу – если это была действительно чаша – в Англию, в Гластонбери…
(Кажется, что каждая страна по своему трактовала легенду о Граале, с учетом местных фольклорных особенностей и легенд... Проходя «сквозь» местную мифологию, эта легенда - и сам артефакт – обретали форму, в которой были наиболее приемлемы и священны в данной местности? В Англии, в Британии, где кельты и друиды почитали богиню Керрридвенн и ее священный котел – Грааль так же принял форму чаши. А в Пиренеях, где поклонялись Кибеле в пещерах и гротах, где находили метеориты, упавшие с неба, с их целительными свойствами – Грааль стал камнем, упавшим практически тоже с неба, из короны Люцифера. Не забудем, что легенды о Граале имеют больше литературное происхождение, скажем так, а не фольклорное.)

Otto Wilhelm Rahn (February 18, 1904—March 13, 1939) was a German medievalist and a Obersturmführer (First Lieutenant) of the SS, born in Michelstadt, Germany.

Speculation still swirls around Otto Rahn and his research. From an early age, he became interested in the legends of Parsifal, Holy Grail, Lohengrin, and the Nibelungenlied. While attending the University of Giessen he was inspired by his professor, the Baron von Gall, to study the Albigensian (Catharism) movement, and the massacre that occurred at Montségur. Rahn is quoted as saying that "It was a subject that completely captivated me''".
Work

Richard Stanley is the award-winning South African-born filmmaker, who made a name of himself with his first feature film, the scifi-movie Hardware. A low budjet movie about a mad-dog android loose in an apartment was released in 1990. Critics slammed it as a Terminator rip-off, yet the film became a financial success. The 1,5 million dollar budjet was paid back quite handsomely and continuation was imminent.

In 1992, Stanley followed Hardware with Dust Devil, a story based on the myth of a Namibian serial killer. A fallout with the distributors led to the recutting of the US version, while the bankruptcy of the British-based production company Palace Pictures temporarily shut the postproduction down in Europe and the film remained mauled or unfinished, depending how you look at it. Finally Stanley himself managed to finance a new, restored print from the original negative, which has later gained a cult following similar to Hardware.