By Nick Holdsworth

Andres Veiel's documentary “Riefenstahl,” which questions the carefully constructed public identity of one of Germany's most controversial directors, forever tainted by his collaboration with the Nazis, is one of 17 German films screening in various sections of the Venice Film Festival.

The 160-minute film delves deep into Leni Reifenstahl's previously inaccessible archive and reveals the secrets that the director of the 1935 Nuremberg propaganda film “Triumph des Willens” tried to keep hidden for more than half her life.

Veiel, who was brought in to direct the film by producer Sandra Maischberger of Berlin-based Vincent Films – who was given unfettered access to Riefenstahl’s archive after the death of her longtime partner and husband Horst Kette in 2016 – doesn’t mind the film being out of competition, as he believes the festival is the right venue for its premiere.