Terry Prone: Riefenstahl’s confected reputation is destroyed by her own evidence

A new documentary film proves Leni Riefenstahl to have been a convinced Nazi right up to her death

Leni Riefenstahl became famous with films she produced for the Nazis between1932 and 1945. File picture: Jan Pitman/AP

Published in 1986, it was just a few pages shy of 700, filled with the strongly-recollected memories — and photographs — of a woman then 84 years old but with 17 more years to live.

This was the autobiography of a woman who overcame a ghastly childhood to become an award-winning, genre-defining film director, and her story, as told by herself, was one of triumph, hard work, being underestimated, and fighting to get her own way.