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What is the film, and what does it examine?
Riefenstahl is a 115-minute German documentary written and directed by Andres Veiel and produced by Sandra Maischberger. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 29 August 2024 and opened in German cinemas on 31 October 2024. The film revisits the career and postwar public image of Leni Riefenstahl, whose films Triumph of the Will and Olympia are associated with Nazi propaganda and idealized images of strength and victory.
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Rather than relying only on Riefenstahl’s finished films and public interviews, Veiel’s documentary draws on material from her private estate: films, photographs, letters, notes, correspondence, and recordings. WDR reported in 2024 that the team systematically reviewed 700 boxes and spent six years on research and production. The archive matters because it lets the filmmakers compare the image Riefenstahl presented publicly with material she kept, including recordings and conversations they say complicate or contradict her account.
How does the film connect her imagery to the present?
The documentary’s contemporary argument is about how political images work. Heroic low-angle shots, synchronized bodies, idealized physical strength, and the emotional appeal of order can make a political vision feel natural or desirable. In the film’s reading, such images do more than display technical skill: their form and political function cannot simply be separated.
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That is a warning about the persuasive power of spectacle and manipulation, not evidence that a present-day movement is equivalent to the Nazi regime. The film asks whether Riefenstahl’s aesthetics—and the message those aesthetics carried—feel newly recognizable. It invites viewers to examine how images frame power and belonging, rather than treating history as a cycle that repeats unchanged.
Maischberger described the film’s contemporary purpose as a way to understand “the mechanisms of manipulation, as they are appearing again now” (translation of her German statement in ARD’s 2025 release announcement). That is the producer’s framing of the film, not a population-level finding about current political attitudes.
What does the archive suggest about Riefenstahl’s postwar account?
After the war, Riefenstahl maintained that her art was apolitical. The film examines that claim against her work for the regime and the private material she retained. Veiel’s conclusion is that some of the material most damaging to her public account may not have been recognized by Riefenstahl herself as incriminating. That is the director’s interpretation of the archive, not a claim that any single document settles every question about her private beliefs or the full history of her work.
A 1964 interview excerpt reproduced by NDR offers a direct example of how Riefenstahl framed responsibility. Asked about artistic responsibility, she responded that 90 percent of people had been enthusiastic about Hitler and asked whether she was expected to have been among the few resistance fighters. The excerpt is her own answer, presented in the documentary’s context; it should not be mistaken for Veiel’s language or for an independent measure of public opinion.
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Where can viewers find it?
Availability depends on territory and date. ARD announced that the film would be available in the ARD Mediathek from 22 November 2025 and broadcast on television on 24 November 2025; those dated announcements do not establish that it remains available there now. Paramount Pictures Germany lists a DVD edition. For any viewing option, confirm the current catalog, territory, language and subtitle details, and whether a particular edition includes contextual materials. The cited release information does not establish those details across editions or services.
For US exhibition context, Film at Lincoln Center identifies Kino Lorber as the US release. ARD reported in 2025 that the film had screened at more than 40 international festivals after its Venice premiere; that is a distribution figure, not a measure of its historical significance.
Quick Recap
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- Director Martin Scorcese reflects on the influence of filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes)
What should viewers take away?
- The film uses private estate material to revisit a public story Riefenstahl told about her work and responsibility.
- Its central present-day concern is how political spectacle can make power attractive and blur accountability.
- Its analogy is limited: the makers offer a warning about recurring persuasive techniques, not a claim that the present is the same as the Nazi era.
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