This film aims to solve the question that has hovered over Leni Riefenstahl’s character for years: Was she a brilliant filmmaker who simply documented Nazi Germany from the inside without sharing her subjects’ ideology? Or, as many have argued, did she attain her special status within the Nazi regime due to her sympathy for it?

Director Andres Veiel tries not to judge or defend Riefenstahl, yet the resulting film reinforces the view that she sympathized with the Nazis and expressed support for fascism even in the years after their demise (she died in 2003 at the age of 101). Riefenstahl’s claims that she knew nothing about the extermination of Jews also seem unfounded considering the documents, shared here for the first time, from her personal archive, as well as photographs with Nazi leaders, family, and lovers. Quentin Tarantino once called Riefenstahl the best director who ever lived. This film does not deny her greatness as a filmmaker; it creates a fascinating, complex, and unsettling portrait of a driven, talented woman who did everything she could to succeed and sold out only to end up on the wrong side of history.