Considered lost for nearly seventy years, Leni Riefenstahl's Victory of Faith is again available to viewing audiences. A key work in the evolution of National Socialist propaganda, Victory of Faith provides an ambitious record of the 1933 NS Party rally at Nuremberg, and a fascinating first draft of the ideas and techniques she would later use so powerfully in her monumental Triumph of the Will.
It features a rare look at the power held by Stormtroop Leader Ernst Rohm only a few months prior to his liquidation. The National Socialist movement portrayed here is still raw, not far removed from its street-fighter origins; its stagecraft as yet undeveloped. The film offers a unique glimpse into the Hitler State at a pivotal stage in its early development. This is essential viewing for students of film, the aesthetics of power and the Third Reich. |
