The Last Priestess of Avalon

Selected:

  • 2021 International Screen Forum/Screenworks Write From Home Mentorship (development lab)

Awarded:

  • Semifinalist (top 10%) – Screencraft Fellowship, 2018.
  • Top 12 Recommended Scripts – Scriptapalooza Fellowship 2017.
  • Top 10 Recommended Scripts – Scriptdoctor Contest of Contest Winners 2017.
  • Quarterfinalist (top 6%) – Shore Scripts 2017 (features)

Genre/Format/Status:  Historical Drama (Feature) (script)

Logline:

A Priestess of Avalon struggles to preserve her community’s traditions of healing and unity against the powers of the King and Bishop of the newly emerging Christian Church, who want to destroy the ancient rituals and take the Grail for themselves, with all its magic and power.

Synopsis:

Three archaeologists discover a mysterious grail and jar of papyrus scrolls under the Sphinx in Egypt.   Through reading these scrolls, the lead archaeologist learns of the story of the last priestess of Avalon – VIVIANE, written by her daughter SARAH.

As narrator, Sarah tells of the priestesses’ guardianship of the grail, their ancient bloodline and the philosophy of the Light, which they share with their brothers, the Knights of the Brotherhood of the Light.  We are told of the last days of this society, as the priestesses move to ensure they can prevail in the wider world off Avalon.

Set in 708 a.d., the priestesses’ find their lives at risk due to the desires of the medieval bishop ALDHELM. He wants to Christianize his part of Britain, using his cousin KING INE, the Anglo Saxon warlord to assist him. King Ine is not aware Aldhelm secretly wants to kill the priestesses or run them off Avalon, to gain possession of the Grail, so it may be given to Rome for his own glorification.

In a context of drought and food shortage, Aldhelm also enlists the support of starving villagers by feeding them. They terrorize the priestesses. Attacks on Avalon send early signs the tides are turning for the priestesses.

Viviane receives a channeled message from her mentor IGRAINE, the Crone. Avalon must fall.   But their upcoming diaspora has a higher purpose. It is time to leave Avalon and integrate their sacred bloodline of the Light into the world.

Having always been cloistered on Avalon, Viviane resists leaving. She attempts to negotiate with King Ine to remain on Avalon and in doing so, learns he is in cahoots with his Cousin, Aldhelm. In turn, she negotiates with Aldhelm, to finally learn his true agenda – to have the Grail for himself.

The Knights also quickly discover their position as self-sovereign people is tenable and they bring pressure to bear on Viviane to knuckle under and give up her quest to remain as such. They are outnumbered by King Ine and recognise that ‘might makes right’ in the New Britain. Unknown to Viviane, the knights reinterpret their mandate as Guardians of the Grail to go where the Grail goes. The priestesses lose their allies.

Several priestesses are killed, including Viviane’s mentor Igraine. She is now alone in her belief the grail will be safest in a self-sovereign culture and to achieve this she secedes Avalon and leads her people in their hearts and minds to a new life. This involves the priestesses accepting the higher purpose of their diaspora – to unify their bloodline through raising families and taking a normal life.

On hearing of Igraine’s death, Bellingen realises Aldhelm’s true motives and leaves the church to protect Viviane. They overcome their personal inner demons and reignite their great love. As a unified force of masculine and feminine, they find the courage to go into battle against their enemies to protect the Grail. Viviane uses herself as a human decoy, taking a fake grail into the lake and allowing her enemies to converge on her. In this way, her family can escape. Together, Sarah and Bellingen go on to save the grail and safely take sacred bloodline contained within Sarah, back to the Brotherhood of the Light in Egypt.

During the final battle, Viviane kills her main adversary and surrenders a fake grail. In turn, she dies and thereby fulfills her purpose to save the ancient bloodline and the Grail for all of humanity.

Over time, Sarah and Bellingen achieve the protection of the priestesses and the grail by maintaining their self-sovereignty, but relinquishing their public titles and identity, as secret members of the Brotherhood of the Light. Dissimilarly, the knights go on to align with king and church and maintain their identity in name only. The audience is left to speculate which strategy has succeeded.

Through Sarah’s story, we learn the grail is an ancient symbol of unity dating back over 13,000 years, which must be saved to ensure the possibility of humanity unifying as ‘one people’ and evolving as a species.   We also learn how the integration of the sacred bloodline serves this unification, by imbuing people with the genetic ability to remain self-sovereign and free, while achieving unity within themselves.

Through Sarah’s story, the opening mystery of the meaning of the Grail and how it came to be in Egypt is solved for the three archaeologists who discover the Sphinx temple. They are then left with their own grail quest – to take this ancient knowledge into the world, thereby continuing the possibilities for humanity. This also gives rise to a potential new storyline from 2032 a.d.

Email me for further information – megan@meganwilliams.com.au