Fundamentally dishonest whitewash
What was the point of this movie, really? Mueller knew full well that Riefenstahl, then 91, was going to repeat every well-rehearsed fabrication and unself-critical observation she'd been spouting for more than half a century.
Instead of challenging them, he let most of them stand. Unbelievable.
For example, he lets her get away with the ridiculous claim that her Jewish colleague and screenwriter, Bela Balazs, volunteered to work on her movie Das Blaue Licht (1932) for free. Why didn't Mueller so much as mention the screenwriter's lawsuit?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022694/board/thread/209004744
Second, Mueller misrepresents the circumstances surrounding the production of Tiefland. He seems to downgrade Riefenstahl's moral responsibility by stating that the "production" enlisted the help of the employment office [in Nazi Bavaria] to "hire" (!) extras. In fact, slave laborers were procured from a slave labor camp, which Riefenstahl probably visited herself (as judges later concluded).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046431/board/thread/209004927
Third, Mueller seems to consider it in bad taste to call the racially-motivated massacre of Jews in Konskie, Poland anything more than a "violent clash" between the "Wehrmacht and Polish civilians." Um, no. It was a race war and war crime for which no soldiers were ever disciplined. There now. Was that so hard, Mr. Mueller?
Fourth, Riefenstahl lied when she said she had made enough money from her Olympia films that she could finance Lowlands on her own. Wrong. It was financed by the Nazis, some of that money coming from Hitler himself. She spent 7 million RM on it at a time when most other films cost about half a million RM.
Fifth, Mueller had plenty of opportunities to ask her how her admiration for Nazis influenced her relationship with Jews before and after the war. But he remains silent, content to listen to her regurgitated comments about Hitler's mystique and her willingness to see only his bright side.
Disgraceful.
Mueller made a valuable documentary which should be seen by all who value Riefenstahl's talent as a director, but ethically, he dropped the ball. This is a deeply flawed production that raises more questions than it answers about Riefenstahl's moral sensibilities... and the director's own.