German filmmaker, actress and photographer whose career was embroiled in controversy over her closeness to the Nazis

Leni Riefenstahl, who died on 8 September, 2003, at the age of 101, was one of the most controversial film-makers of the 20th century.

During her long and illustrious life she also played the roles of dancer and actress; and in her 70s started a career in underwater photography, which achieved much critical acclaim.

Her masterpiece was the two-part film Olympia, which documented the Berlin Olympics of 1936, but it was 1934’s Triumph of the Will, said to be a Nazi propaganda film, that was her most provocative work.

Dogged by accusations of being pro-fascist throughout her life, she was greatly admired by Hitler and rumoured to be his lover. She was also said to have taken gypsies from concentration camps to use as extras in Triumph of the Will, knowing they would be later killed. However she denied such stories and always vehemently insisted that she was driven by art, not politics.

Hélène Bertha Amelia 'Leni' Riefenstahl was born on 22 August, 1902, in Berlin. By the age of 22 she found fame and was touring Europe as a dancer, employed by Max Reinhardt.

In 1924, she was inspired to go into film by the actor Luis Trencker, who was to become her lover, but later would fuel rumours about her relationship with Hitler.

Her film debut was The Holy Mountain in 1926 and more followed such as The White Hell of Piz Palu and The Blue Light, which apparently attracted Hitler’s interest in the young actress.

Ms Riefenstahl first met Hitler in 1933, and was said to have been "mesmerised" by him. In the same year, the Nazis had won power over Germany through the March elections and she was commissioned to make Victory of the Faith, the precursor to Triumph of the Will.

In defence of her work she said: "I was only interested in how I could make a film that was not stupid like a crude propagandist newsreel, but more interesting. It reflects the truth as it was then, in 1934. It is a documentary, not propaganda."

Olympia came after, which, after two years of editing, was premiered on Hitler’s 49th birthday in 1938. The backlash against Riefenstahl then peaked and her filmmaking career was over.

During the Second World War she was a war correspondent for a short while and witnessed the massacre of Polish civilians by German soldiers.

In the 1960s, she discovered Africa and still photography. After recovering from a serious car accident, she sought out the Nuba Tribe in Southern Sudan, and lived with them for six months, which produced four books, including 1974’s The Last of the Nuba.

In the early 1990s she started underwater diving and despite winning more acclaim for her photography, her work was still tainted by her reputation, with a 1997 exhibition in Hamburg drawing fierce protests.

In 2000 she revisited the Nuba, before dying in Pocking, Germany, childless and separated from her husband Major Peter Jacob, whom she married in 1944.

She survives Horst Kettner, who was her companion for more than 30 years.