By Nick Holdsworth

Andres Veiel's documentary “Riefenstahl,” which challenges the carefully constructed public identity of one of Germany's most controversial directors, is one of 17 German films screening in various sections of the Venice Film Festival.

The 160-minute film delves deep into Leni Riefenstahl'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 was brought in as director by producer Sandra Maischberger of Berlin-based Vincent Films. After the death of her loyal partner and husband Horst Kette in 2016, she had been given unhindered access to Riefenstahl's archive.