Anthracite is currently conquering the streaming charts on Netflix. The series was inspired by true events surrounding the Sun Templar sect in the 1990s.
The French mystery series Anthracite entered the Netflix streaming program almost two weeks ago and has been holding its own in the top 10 of the series charts ever since. Anthracite’s gruesome and gripping story about a mysterious sect is based on true events that took place in the French Alps in the 1990s.
This is what the Netflix hit Anthracite is about
In Anthracite, a small village in the Alps becomes the scene of a terrifying mass suicide of 16 followers of a mysterious sect. Around 30 years later, a murder occurs in the village that recalls the rituals of the former sect and once again terrifies the locals.
(Anthracite)
The villagers quickly find a suspect: Newcomer Jaro (Clément Penhoat), who has a previous criminal record. Jaro then has to prove his innocence and meets young Ida (Noémie Schmidt), who is looking for her missing father.
Anthracite: The Sun Templar sect served as inspiration for the Netflix series
While the plot of the series is fictional, series creators Fanny Robert and Maxime Berthemy were inspired by the true events surrounding the French sect of the Solar Templars. In December 1995, 16 members of the association committed mass suicide or murder in the French Alps near Grenoble. The act followed two other group deaths that had already occurred in 1994. This was followed in 1997 by another event with many deaths.
The Netflix series uses the incident in December 1995 as the starting point for the story, in which 16 people lost their lives. Police found the bodies of the real-life Sun Templars aligned in a star formation. Various members were stunned, suffocated and shot before they died. Two of those present then burned the bodies of the others before committing suicide themselves.
(Anthracite)
The Sun Templar sect was founded in 1984 by the alternative medicine practitioner Luc Jouret and the jeweler Joseph Di Mambro. It had strong links to the Rosicrucian Order and the Knights Templar and had an apocalyptic orientation.
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Among other things, the members believed that they could be reincarnated in the star system of Sirius after their death in order to promote the founding of a new humanity. The mass suicides and murders are said to have been motivated by this belief. Whether individual cases were actually voluntary suicides or murders by other members is still unclear today.
