From the magazine

What did Leni Riefenstahl know?

A mesmerising portrait of Hitler's favourite filmmaker

Deborah Ross
When it’s put to Riefenstahl that Goebbels said in his diary that she visited him and Hitler ‘as an old friend’, she explodes 
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 10 May 2025
issue 10 May 2025

Leni Riefenstahl: what are we to make of her? What did she know? Often described as ‘Hitler’s favourite filmmaker’, she always claimed that she knew nothing of any atrocities. She was a naive artist, not a collaborator in a murderous regime. This documentary wants to get to the truth. But even if you’ve already made your own mind up – I had! – it’s still a mesmerising portrait of the kind of person who cannot give up on the lies they’ve told themselves.

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