Can a filmmaker's art be separated from her politics?

If Veiel's 'Riefenstahl' is important, it is to show how public opinion can be swayed by the power of the image or the word

- DEEPA GAHLOT

A new documentary, Riefenstahl, by Andres Veiel, about the controversial German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, once again raises questions about an artist's conscience. Can a filmmaker make beautiful and powerful propaganda films about an evil Fascist regime and claim she did not know about atrocities being committed against citizens of her country—not just Jews but anyone who stood up to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis?

Riefenstahl lived to the age of 101 (she died in 2003), and left behind an extensive archive, undoubtedly edited and sanitized, of photographs, films, letters, newspaper clippings and audio recordings—700 boxes that Veiel sifted through to make his film about the woman, who has been the subject of countless films, books (including her own memoir), research studies, print and TV interviews, but remains enigmatic.

Many filmmakers, writers and artists colluded with the Nazi regime—some because they believed in the despicable cause, some out of fear; but so many decades later, the fascination with Riefenstahl lingers. It could be because she was a woman (though she described herself as "100% woman, 100% man"), at a time when women were not offered positions of power, and also because she was an extraordinarily gifted filmmaker.

The stunning images in just two of her many films—Triumph Of The Will and Olympia—would guarantee any filmmaker a place in movie history. Other propaganda filmmakers of the time, like Fritz Hippler—who made the dreadfully racist The Eternal Jew—have been forgotten.