Tiefland

In her second film as director, Leni Riefenstahl returned to the mountain settings which had made her a star of German cinema. Tiefland (Lowlands) dramatizes the conflicts between the shepherds on the slopes of the Spanish Pyrenees and the power-hungry Don Sebastian (Bernhard Minetti) who diverts their water to the plains below, in order to feed his cattle. Don Sebastian becomes smitten with Martha, an exotic Spanish dancer (Riefenstahl), and schemes to add her to his menagerie. Martha tries to broker a peace between the cattle baron and the shepherds, but Don Sebastian’s greed is insatiable, and a violent confrontation seems inevitable. Tiefland was filmed in 1932, but the footage was confiscated by Allied forces during World War II. It wasn’t until 1954 that Riefenstahl was able to complete the film—in spite of some of the footage having been lost in the interim. This edition of Tiefland was restored in 4K from the original 35mm negative.