The applause was so loud and insistent that I had to respond with several encores. I was numb with happiness, when it was over, I knew that this alone must be my life and my world.

In 1956 inspired by Ernest Hemingway's 1935 novel Green Hills of Africa Leni Riefenstahl began an ambitious film project in Africa drawn from another novel called Schwarze Fracht (Black Freight). According to her memoir Riefenstahl tried to intervene but a furious German soldier held her at gunpoint and threatened to shoot her on the spot. The film attracted the attention of Hitler who believed Leni Riefenstahl epitomized the perfect German female.

Riefenstahl’s prominence in the Third Reich along with her personal association with Adolf Hitler destroyed her film career following Germany's defeat in World War II after which Leni Riefenstahl was arrested but released without any charges. After her death the Associated Press described Riefenstahl as an “acclaimed pioneer of film and photographic techniques”. Triumph of the Will gave Riefenstahl instant and lasting international fame as well as infamy.