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When presented with the opportunity to direct Das Blaue Licht ( The Blue Light ) ( 1932 ), she took it.

Breaking from Fanck's style of setting realistic stories in fairytale mountain settings, Riefenstahl — working with leftist screen writers Béla Balázs and Carl Mayer — filmed Das Blaue Licht as a romantic, wholly mystical tale which she thought of as more fitting to the terrain.

She co-wrote, directed and starred in the film and produced it under the banner of her own company, Leni Riefenstahl Productions.

Das Blaue Licht won the Silver Medal at the Venice Biennale and played to full audiences all over Europe.

However, it was not universally well-received, for which Riefenstahl blamed the critics, many of them Jewish.

Upon its 1938 re-release, the names of co-writer Béla Balázs and producer Harry Sokal, both Jewish, were removed from the credits ; some reports claim this was at Riefenstahl ’ s behest.

The director later turned over the name of her Jewish co-screenwriter to Nazi Propagandist Julius Streicher.

Riefenstahl received invitations to travel to Hollywood to create films, but she refused the offers in order to stay in Germany with a boyfriend.