Dancing in the Darkness

In a room as white and austere as a hospital ward, in a fanciful penthouse done up like an ocean liner floating halfway between Tiergartenstrasse and a pale December sky, Sally Faulkner stared at the woman across the table and began to comprehend her situation. The reigning Queen of European Cinema, Leni Riefenstahl, was thirty-seven years old, at the height of her creative powers, an international celebrity. The Fuhrer's Filmmaker, an honorific endowing her with influence and respect. Yet, Leni wasn't her own woman. What empowered her ensnared her. The films she made were magnificent, but they weren't hers. They were the property of her patron. And so was she. With alarm bells ringing, Sally suddenly recognized that if she wanted a career in Germany and her self-respect, she'd have to watch her step - not only with Doctor Goebbels.