Riefenstahl

<p><img alt="Laurel icon denoting the film is in competition for a Jury Prize." border="0" src="https://data.ajff.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/logo_2025%20Jury%20Award%20Nominee_02.png" style="width:20%; max-width:20%; margin-left:10px; float:right;" />This chilling portrait explores the contentious legacy of master German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, whose genius, inextricably linked to Nazi propaganda, occupies an uneasy place in cinema history. Best known for films like <em>Triumph of the Will</em> and <em>Olympia</em>, Riefenstahl’s visually seductive works glorified Aryan ideals of physical perfection and collective power. Yet, her troubling associations with Hitler, Goebbels, and the Nazi regime cast a long shadow. Damning newly uncovered private films, letters, and recordings expose her lifelong attempts to rewrite history and deny culpability. This confrontational, timely meditation on art, politics, and morality raises unsettling questions about how powerful imagery can serve toxic ideological agendas…with devastating consequences.