Germany, 2024, 120 min., German, English, French with English and Bulgarian subtitles, dir. Andres Veiel
Leni Riefenstahl is considered one of the most controversial women of the 20th century as an artist and a Nazi propagandist. Her films TRIUMPH OF THE WILL and OLYMPIA stand for perfectly staged body worship and the celebration of the superior and victorious. At the same time, these images project contempt for the imperfect and weak. Riefenstahl’s aesthetics are more present than ever today – but is that also true for their implied message? The film examines this question using documents from Riefenstahl’s estate, including private films, photos, recordings and letters. It uncovers fragments of her biography and places them in an extended historical context. How could Riefenstahl become the Reich’s preeminent filmmaker and keep denying any closer ties to Hitler and Goebbels? During her long life after the fall of Nazism, she remained unapologetic, managing to control and shape her legacy. In personal documents, she mourns her “murdered ideals”. Riefenstahl represents many postwar Germans who, in letters and recorded telephone calls from her estate, dream of an organizing hand that will finally clean up the “shit-hole state”. Then, her work would also experience a renaissance, in a generation or two this time could come – what if they are right?
Screenwriter: Andres Veiel
DOP: Toby Cornish
Music: Freya Arde
Production: Sandra Maischberger
Director’s Biography:
Andres Veiel is considered one of the most distinguished representatives of politically engaged art in Germany. One of his distinctive characteristics is the intense, in some cases multiannual research for his projects. From 1985 until 1989 he studied psychology at FU Berlin and at the same time received a training in film dramaturgy and directing by the Polish director Krzystof Kieslowski at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. In addition to his film works Andres Veiel writes and directs stage plays , i.a. at Theater Basel, Schauspiel Stuttgart, Gorki-Theater and Deutsches Theater (Berlin).