Andreas Wiel's documentary “Riefenstahl,” which challenges the carefully crafted public persona of one of Germany's most controversial directors, whose reputation was forever tarnished by his work with the Nazis, is one of 17 German films screening in the various sections of the Venice Film Festival.
The 160-minute film offers a deep dive into Leni Riefenstahl's previously unavailable archive, lifting the lid on secrets that the director of the 1935 Nuremberg propaganda film “Triumph of the Will” fought for more than half her life to keep hidden.
But Weil, who was brought in to direct the film by producer Sandra Maischberger of Berlin's Vincent Films – who was given unrestricted access to Riefenstahl's archive after the death of her longtime companion and husband Horst Kette in 2016 – is not worried about the film being knocked out of competition because he believes the festival is the right place for its premiere.
“For me, it's the right festival for film,” says Phil. diverse“The political situation in Germany and Italy is similar – with the rise of the right, the craving for propaganda and fake news. For the discussion around the film, it is one of the best festivals for us.”
There are also ghosts from the past in Venice – Riefenstahl screened several of her films at the festival in the 1930s, including her two Nazi propaganda films and her first feature, The Blue Light, made in 1932. She even held a retrospective of her film Lido in the 1950s, at a time when she was just beginning to build a persona that was far from the Nazis and, as Riefenstahl’s film shows, was largely built on lies.
Although Riefenstahl's film is not an easy watch – Viel succeeds in establishing her apparent complicity in the murder of Jewish men in Poland and her admiration for Hitler – it will likely prove to be a film worth seeing in Venice.
Another long-awaited film in the Extra Competition section is Tim Fellbaum’s “September 5th,” set during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Starring Peter Sarsgaard and John Magaro, the film follows an ABC sports team who must switch from covering athletics to the Israeli hostage crisis, and focuses on how tragic events can challenge the moral compass of the journalists covering them.
In Afak, “Happy Holidays” by Iskandar Copti tells the story of a Palestinian woman whose double life is revealed after a car accident in Jerusalem, and “A Quiet Life” by Alexandros Avranas focuses on a family of asylum seekers whose hopes of creating a new life in Sweden are shattered when their application is rejected.
Two German co-productions are in the main competition – Athena Rachel Tsangari’s “The Harvest,” based on the book of the same name, about an unknown English village that seems to exist in no time or place – before disappearing forever. There’s also “Maria,” an Italian-German-American co-production by Pablo Larraín, about opera singer Maria Callas.
Looking ahead, German films are also set to head to the Toronto Film Festival.
Among the festival’s headline films is Fabian Stumm’s “Sad Jokes,” which will premiere in the festival’s Discoveries section. The film focuses on the relationship between Josef and Sonia—who are raising their son together, though their relationship is platonic. Things go wrong when Sonia collapses, distracting Josef from a new film project—and the pain of breaking up with his ex-lover Mark.
Other films already announced include Torker Sauer's “Edge of Night,” Emil Samadi Ahadi's “Seven Days,” and Nicolas Gibby's “The Sunset Special 2.”
