Andres Veiel paints a complex and contradictory portrait of the film director most responsible for selling the glory of Nazi Germany to the world. Instead of condemning Leni Riefenstahl’s lies about her part in a genocidal totalitarian enterprise, Veiel lets her equivocate and massage her legacy through the many public interviews she gave throughout her long life. She hangs herself again and again and yet is allowed to keep lying freely till the end of her days.

What makes this chilling film so relatable to our current time is the way it shows a public person doubling and tripling down on obvious falsehoods and, rather than being shunned, being rewarded for it. To be sure, there are voices that call out Riefenstahl for the loathsome propagandist she was, but Veiel plays dozens of audio re

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