Is Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia Nazi propaganda – or the greatest film about sport ever made? The two-part documentary has been acclaimed as a masterpiece that revolutionised the way sport was depicted on screen.  This epic record of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games attempts to combine sporting reportage with a celebration of physical beauty and the spectacle involved in this uniquely unifying event. And what cinema historians still debate today is whether Riefenstahl was defying Goebbels and Hitler all those summers ago, or whether she was doing exactly what they wanted. 

The two-part documentary will be screened over the next two weeks.

Olympia Part One:

Festival of Nations (Olympia 1. Teil – Fest der Völker) | ( Click here to watch )
(111 min; 1938; b/w; German with English subtitles)
Director: Leni Riefenstahl

Recipient of the Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Kinema Junpo Awards 1941. Part One begins with a history of the Olympic games – with a mystical glide through the smoke-wreathed ruins and statues of ancient Greece depicting the traditions of the ancient games in the city of Olympia. The film floats through time and space until it reaches the lighting of the Olympic cauldron in Berlin – the torch relay was invented for the 1936 Games and continuing with a portrayal of many of the field events at the 1936 Berlin games.