X
- 2025
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 55 m
- 2025
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 55 m
Summary Filmmaker and Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl is considered one of the most controversial women of the 20th century. Her films Triumph of the Will and Olympia are defined by their fascist aesthetics, perfectly-staged body worship, and the celebration of all that is "superior" and victorious, simultaneously projecting contempt for the ...
Directed By: Andres Veiel
Written By: Andres Veiel
- 2025
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 55 m
- 2025
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 55 m
Riefenstahl
7.2
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Summary Filmmaker and Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl is considered one of the most controversial women of the 20th century. Her films Triumph of the Will and Olympia are defined by their fascist aesthetics, perfectly-staged body worship, and the celebration of all that is "superior" and victorious, simultaneously projecting contempt for the ...
Directed By: Andres Veiel
Written By: Andres Veiel
Where to Watch
Coming Soon
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 17 Critic Reviews
82
94% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
6% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 17 Critic Reviews
82
94% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
6% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
May 16, 2025
It’s not often that films get better on a second viewing, but this dense, challenging and intellectually rigorous documentary about “Hitler’s favourite film-maker” Leni Riefenstahl is one of those exceptions.
Jan 9, 2025
Riefenstahl is a crushing exposé, and its most impressive trick is peeling back the layers of a very private woman to show a petulant child who can’t believe people haven’t gotten over the atrocities she willingly helped create.
Sep 4, 2025
The portrait that emerges is that of a fanatical protector of her public image, a movie star turned director for whom the camera was a miraculous and endlessly manipulable tool, no matter which side of it she was on.
Sep 5, 2025
Veiel not only provides details of letters and images throughout Riefenstahl but also constructs a story of filmmaking through his own film. He conveys the emotion of “how could she” using selective footage and placement, timed interviews, behind-the-scenes actions, and subtle narration, allowing imagery to tell a story for the viewer to decide their side.
May 7, 2025
Andres Veiel’s sombre documentary tells the gripping, incrementally nauseating story of Helene “Leni” Riefenstahl, the brilliant and pioneering German film-maker of the 20th century who isn’t getting her name on a Girls on Tops T-shirt any time soon.
Sep 1, 2025
If there’s still anyone uncritically repeating Riefenstahl’s narrative of naïveté, they’ll find it hard to sustain by the end credits.
Jan 9, 2025
I got bogged down frequently in the familiarity and intentional messiness of the story that Veiel and producer Sandra Maischberger chose to tell, while at the same time wondering what sense a wholly unaware viewer would be able to make of this woman and the long shadow she still casts.
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 10 User Ratings
7.2
80% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
10% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
10% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 10 User Ratings
7.2
80% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
10% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
10% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Nov 17, 2025
“To thine own self be true” – it’s an admonition and affirmation generally held in high regard, but it’s also one that can be difficult to live up to. In many instances, that’s attributable to not really knowing oneself in the first place. And, as this telling documentary from writer-director Andres Veiel reveals, that was very much the case where German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003) was concerned. At the risk of profound understatement, this colorful, controversial yet innovatively brilliant German-born actor-producer-director lived what could best be termed “a complicated life.” As an impassioned devotee of the arts, she developed a stellar reputation for her work as an actress and filmmaker in such pictures as director Arnold Fanck’s “Storm Over Mont Blanc” (“Stürme über dem Mont Blanc”) (1930) and her own directorial debut, “The Blue Light” (“Das blaue Licht – Eine Berglegende aus den Dolomiten”) (1932). Her considerable talents, in turn, caught the attention of the leaders of the country’s emerging National Socialist (i.e., ****) Party, who were looking for someone to serve as a creator of propaganda films (even if they weren’t officially called as much at the time). Riefenstahl was thus recruited to direct documentaries about the landmark Nuremberg **** Rally, “Triumph of the Will” (1935), and “Olympia” (1938), a two-part production celebrating the glories of the Third Reich at the 1936 Berlin Olympiade. Through these works, the filmmaker significantly advanced her reputation as a documentary filmmaker, introducing never-before-seen innovations in cinematography. She relished these opportunities to showcase her capabilities, but it came at a price when the truth of **** atrocities emerged during World War II – incidents about which she claimed to have no knowledge until she began witnessing them firsthand as a documentary war correspondent in Poland in 1939. Disillusionment subsequently set in. But, when she was accused of actively helping to sanction such unspeakable brutality, she assertively recoiled, insisting that this was not her intent when she agreed to make her films (despite remaining “friends” with the perpetrators who hired her). “Riefenstahl” thus raises the **** question, “In light of the foregoing, was she truly unaware or remarkably naïve and delusional?” Through a wealth of archive footage, including numerous interviews with the filmmaker, there’s plenty of evidence that cuts both ways: Did she willingly turn a blind eye to avail herself of the opportunity (and consequently believe her own hype)? Or was she shielded from the truth by her **** overlords to get the agenda-driven output from her that they were seeking? This unceasing ambivalence would become a ghost that would haunt her for the rest of her life, especially when skeptics and investigative journalists in later years raised hard questions about her role in the rise of the Third Reich. Riefenstahl’s vociferous efforts to defend her name and work reflect the intrinsic indecision that pervaded her outlook during the 50+ years she lived after the war’s end, an attribute whose nature almost comes across as surreal at times. Regardless of what one might believe, there would appear to be plenty of room for justified ambiguity here, much of it based in the filmmaker’s apparent inability (or unwillingness) to examine her own true self. This outstanding release thus illustrates how clear-cut answers to pressing questions like this may not always be readily available, a quality that provides decidedly riveting viewing, particularly through the deliberately ambivalent ways in which this story is told and documented. So was Riefenstahl a victimized pawn? A gullible idealist? A bald-faced, lying collaborator? That’s up to viewers to decide, especially since the protagonist herself doesn’t appear to have a response to any of these characterizations. To thine own self be true, indeed.
Report
Sep 12, 2025
"Riefenstahl" is a crushing exposé, and its most impressive trick is peeling back the layers of a very private woman to show a petulant child who can’t believe people haven’t gotten over the atrocities she willingly helped create.
Report
Production Company
- Vincent Productions
- Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
- Südwestrundfunk (SWR)
- Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR)
- Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR)
- Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB)
- Deutscher Filmförderfonds (DFFF)
- Film- und Medienstiftung NRW
- Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
- Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA)
- Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM)
Release Date Sep 5, 2025
Duration 1 h 55 m
Genres
Awards
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards
• 3 Nominations
Hong Kong International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
European Film Awards
• 2 Nominations
