Tiefland (film)

Tiefland
Directed by	Leni Riefenstahl
Written by	Leni Riefenstahl Harald Reinl
Based on	Tiefland by Eugen d'Albert Rudolph Lothar (that is based in Terra Baixa, famous catalan play by Àngel Guimerà)
Produced by	Leni Riefenstahl Josef Plesner
Starring	Bernhard Minetti Leni Riefenstahl
Cinematography	Albert Benitz
Edited by	Leni Riefenstahl
Music by	Herbert Windt Giuseppe Becce
Distributed by	Allianz Verleih Deutsche Cosmopol Taurus (video)
Release date	11 February 1954 (1954-02-11)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	West Germany
Language	German
Budget	DM 8.5 million

Tiefland ("Lowlands") is a 1954 West German opera drama film directed, produced, co-written, edited by and starring Leni Riefenstahl, and based on the 1903 eponymous opera composed by Eugen d'Albert to a libretto by Rudolph Lothar based on the 1896 Catalan play Terra baixa by Àngel Guimerà. The film co-stars Bernhard Minetti, and is Riefenstahl's last feature film as both director and lead actress.

Riefenstahl started to develop the script in 1934, with the movie being shot between 1940 and 1944. However, it was not completed by the end of World War II and was eventually finalized and released on February 11, 1954. It was once listed as the feature film with the longest production time in history by the Guinness Book of World Records.^[1] This record was later surpassed by The Thief and the Cobbler (with 29 years of production from 1964 to 1993), and there exist films with production times that are longer still.

Riefenstahl's movie is the second Tiefland film that is based on the opera, the first one being a silent film in 1922, directed by Adolf E. Licho, with Lil Dagover as the main actress. The earlier American silent movie Marta of the Lowlands (1914) was based on the English translation of a Spanish translation of Guimerà's play.