JIFF25: Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl was called the “best director who ever lived” by Quentin Tarantino and her films Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938) were described by legendary film critic Pauline Kael as “the two greatest films ever directed by a woman”. Lauded though they may be, these films were commissioned Nazi propaganda, and Riefenstahl spent the rest of her 101-year-long life after the fall of Nazism remaining unapologetic of her work and denying awareness of the Holocaust. 

This searing and compelling documentary questions Riefenstahl’s claims of naivety, seeking to understand how she came to be received so warmly in the decades following World War II. With unprecedented access to 700 boxes of archival material from Riefenstahl’s private estate, documentarian Andres Veiel pieces together a fascinating portrait of one of the 20th century’s most controversial figures and her complex legacy in the overlap of art and politics. 

 German, English, French with English subtitles