Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl’s estate is considered one of the most important collections in the history of film and photography. Andres Veiel’s film lifts this treasure from 700 boxes. Starting with Riefenstahl’s beginnings as an actress in the 1930s, he shows how her encounters with Hitler and Goebbels made her the most important filmmaker of the Reich. Her propaganda films “Triumph of the Will” and “Olympia” are world-famous. Previously unpublished private films, letters, manuscripts, intimate documents, photos, sound recordings and recordings of Riefenstahl’s TV appearances from the 1960s until her death in 2003 show an artist who distanced herself from Nazi ideology throughout her life. Andres Veiel questions their lies and legends and thus initiates a discourse on the current effectiveness of fake news and propaganda.