The Blue Light

The Blue Light (Das Blaue Licht) is widely regarded as the best of the German mountain films of the early 1930s. Leni Riefenstahl both directed and starred in this film, playing a free-spirited gamine who dares to climb a precipitous mountain peak. Because she is the only member of her community to accomplish this, she is regarded as something of a witch.

When she discovers a hidden crystal cave, the villagers change their tune and follow her up the mountain, stripping the cave of its riches. She responds to this symbolic rape by killing herself. It was The Blue Light which impressed Hitler and Goebbels enough to engage Leni Riefenstahl to direct the Nazi party's subsequent propaganda films.