Leni Riefenstahl interviewed by Kevin Brownlow

"If Leni Riefenstahl had done nothing but visit Africa and bring back her photographs, her place in history would be secure."

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The Nuba ran beside the VW calling out "Leni basso". Of course, Leni knew she would come back.

In May, l963, Leni accompanied the elderly Prince Ernst von Isenburg, who had lived in East Africa for thirty years, on a trip to the Masai. Celebrated for their fearlessness, the Masai were undefeated until they met the British and the Gatling gun. But they would not sign a peace treaty until they had been brought into the presence of the highest authority, Queen Victoria herself.

"The Masai are very interesting photo material-their appearance, their dress. The pictures I took in the Sudan are rare because people hardly ever get there, but those of the Masai photos are not worth a lot because there are so many of them."

Leni was fascinated to see the difference between the Nuba, who had respect for women, and the Masai, for whom they had less value than a cow.

"But they could be disarmingly nice, and they even performed fights for us." (p. 496)

When Leni returned to her home in Munich, her mother was horrified by her appearance. She had not been ill and felt immensely fit; only her hair had been damaged by the sun, and she had lost a great deal of weight. What concerned her were the rolls of film she had sent back.

"I gave them to a young man, a student I knew called Ulli, who was to take them to my mother. The student exposed all the films. Destroyed them all. Every one. I could never repeat them."

Leni was shattered and could barely sleep or eat. She showed the destroyed rolls to detectives. It turned out that for some unaccountable reason, Ulli had taken the films out of their capsules in broad daylight and they were light-struck. The police found four undeveloped rolls in his apartment, and when developed these turned out to be flawless-they contained the shots of the Dinka. And fortunately, the first consignment of ninety rolls with all the Nuba shots were safe. Leni offered them to the German magazines Stern, Bunte Illustrierte and Quick and presumably due to her record as a film-maker during the Third Reich, they were turned down by all of them. Only Axel Springer's Kristall, whose editors were amazed by the pictures, were willing to publish them-which they did in three editions. Leni took the pictures on the lecture circuit and received excellent reactions from every audience to whom she showed them.

Ill fortune has ruthlessly dogged Leni but she has always had the resilience and courage to overcome it. And sometimes the ill-fortune was followed by strokes of astounding good luck.

Revolution had broken out in the Sudan. But her old friend Ahmed Abu Bakr obtained permits for filming in the Nuba Hills. "The Nuba greeted me-if it were possible-even more exuberantly than last time," she wrote. (p. 512) Everything seemed the same. The Nuba seemed the happiest people in creation.

It was during a visit to the BBC in London in 1966 that I first met Leni; she came to the flat of Philip Jenkinson in Blackheath and to a group of us showed the surviving rolls of the Nuba film on l6mm. I remember feeling that Fromm's cinematography was careful and efficient, but when we saw the Nuba slides, without exception, her stills in colour of the same events were more effective. Many were incredibly good.

"You can see I am a film-maker, yes?" she said.

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