RIEFENSTAHL

As a director, she created iconic images. Her ideological proximity to the Nazi regime is something she consistently denied after the Second World War. Leni Riefenstahl allowed only one version of her life story to exist: her own. Yet, the estate of one of the most controversial women of the 20th century tells a different story.

Leni Riefenstahl remains one of the most disputed figures of the 20th century. The visual worlds she created in “Triumph of the Will” and “Olympia” stand for the perfectly staged cult of the body — a glorification of strength and victory. And at the same time, they embody what these images conceal: the contempt for the imperfect, the supposedly sick and weak, the belief in the superiority of some over others. The aesthetics of her imagery are more present today than ever — and with them, perhaps, her message?

The film explores this question through documents from Riefenstahl’s estate — private films and photographs, recorded phone calls with close companions, and personal letters. Image by image, layer by layer, it uncovers fragments of her biography and places them within a broader historical and contemporary context.

Riefenstahl’s obsession with the beauty of disciplined, muscular bodies did not begin in the 1930s. As a desired son, she was subjected to the harsh upbringing of her father. In the 1920s, this training continued on her film sets. She wanted to keep up with her male colleagues — men who glorified the First World War as a magnificent time and were ready to rally under the Führer’s flag.

With the images from Triumph of the Will, she portrayed herself: organized strength and grandeur, the display of a controlled body, primed for victory. Her postwar refusal to acknowledge the interconnection between her art and the regime’s terror is more than just denial of guilt — in her private writings, she mourns her murdered ideals.

In this, she stands for many others whose letters and recorded conversations from her estate express a longing for an ordering hand that would finally clean up this rotten state. Then, they believe, her work would be rediscovered — in one or two generations.
What if she was right?

SCREENINGS & FESTIVALS

02.05.2025 – German Film Festival, Australia
17.04.2025 – 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival, Hong Kong
05.04.2025 – Bolzano Film Festival, Bolzano
23.02.2025 – Sedona International Film Festival, Arizona, USA
27.11.2024 – Theatrical release France
21.11.2024 – Theatrical release Switzerland
16.11.2024 – Festival AUGENBLICK, France
12.11.2024 – 41. Kasseler Dokfest, * Opening Film
31.10.2024 – Theatrical release Germany
30.10.2024 – Screening & Talk, Abaton, in cooperation with ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS, Hamburg
26.10.2024 – Screening & Talk, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
20.10.2024 – Mumbai Film Festival, India
17.10.2024 – Film Festival Cologne, * Opening Film, * German Premiere
05.10.2024 – Zurich Film Festival, Switzerland
29.09.2024 – Festival 2 Valenciennes, Frankreich
12.09.2024 – CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival, Hungary
01.09.2024 – Telluride Film Festival, Colorado, USA
29.08.2024 – 81st Venice International Film Festival, Italy * World Premiere

AWARDS

19.04.2025 – Fire Bird Arward, Jury Prize, Hong Kong
29.09.2024 – Best Documentary 2024, Gilde Film Award of the AG Kino-Gilde
29.09.2024 – Youth Jury Favorite 2024, Filmkunsmesse Leipzig 2024
14.09.2024 – CineDocs Prize, CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival, Hungary
05.09.2024 – Best Film, Cinema & Arts Award, Venice