Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl is considered one of the most controversial figures of the twentieth century. Her films Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will) and Olympia epitomise 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 prevalent today than ever—but does the same hold true for their underlying message? The film explores this question using documents from Riefenstahl’s estate, including private films, photos, letters, and recordings. It uncovers fragments of her biography and places them within a broader historical context. How could Riefenstahl rise to become the Reich’s leading filmmaker while persistently denying any close ties to Hitler and Goebbels? In personal documents, she laments her “murdered ideals.” Riefenstahl reflects many post-war Germans who, through letters and recorded telephone calls from her estate, yearn for an authoritative figure to restore order to the “shit-hole state”. They believe that this restoration could bring about a renaissance of her work—a possibility that might come to fruition in a generation or two. What if they are right?

Now as then Riefenstahl’s visual worlds are about triumph. Triumph over doubt, ambivalence, supposed weakness and imperfection. Thus, looking at the world today, a film about Riefenstahl became an urgent necessity for me. Riefenstahl’s extensive legacy, reinterpreted in the light of her private estate, offered the opportunity for a new take on the timeless attraction of imperial greatness and its need for the glorification of muscular, perfect and victorious bodies, an urge that is on the rise again today.

PRODUCTION: Vincent Productions GmbH
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10119, Berlin, Germany
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