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.

It was once listed as the feature film with the longest production time in history by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Meanwhile, in the Catalan lowlands of northeastern Spain, a canal is completed which diverts water from the farms and fields of the peasants to support the prize bulls of the landowner, Don Sebastian, marquis of Roccabruno.

Although the German press anticipated the release of the movie in 1941, the production proved to be much more difficult and costly and outdoor shooting lasted until 1944.

[3] Problems were compounded by Riefenstahl's depression and other ailments, poor weather, accidents, and the difficulty of getting actors and staff organized during the war.

[4] Eventually, at a cost of about 8.5 million ℛ︁ℳ︁, Tiefland was the most expensive black-and-white movie produced in Nazi Germany.

Riefenstahl took the female lead role of Martha, a step that was not originally planned; however, she found no actress to her liking available at the time, and so she did it.

Arnold Fanck, Veit Harlan and Georg Wilhelm Pabst all gave directorial assistance at one time or the other.

Herbert Windt and Giuseppe Becce worked on the musical score that was inspired by Eugen d'Albert's opera.

Riefenstahl deposited a quantity of unused Tiefland material with the Bundesarchiv, the German national archives.

[8] Jean Cocteau, then chairman of the 1954 Cannes Film Festival, was struck by its "Breughel-like intensity" and "the poetry of the camera".

He offered to provide French subtitles himself and attempted to persuade the West German government to make the film its official entry.

This affords Miss Riefenstahl the opportunity, in her directorial capacity, to film mists and babbling brooks with a grace that recalls Olympia.

Other interpretations saw the marquis as a representation of a Hitler figure, Martha as a stand-in for a repentant Leni, an unfortunate tempted by opportunism.

[11] These extras are seen, for instance, in the dancing sequence in the tavern, and Sinti children run alongside Pedro when he comes down from the mountain to marry Martha.

In three denazification trials after the war, Riefenstahl was accused of Nazi collaboration and eventually termed a "fellow traveler"; however, none of the Sinti was asked to testify.

The issue surfaced after the German magazine Revue published the use of these extras in 1949 and indicated that they were forced labor and sent later to Auschwitz where many of them perished in the Holocaust.

In 1982, Nina Gladitz produced a documentary Zeit des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit (Time of Darkness and Silence) and examined the use of these Sinti in the making of Tiefland.

As a consequence of the case Riefenstahl made the following apology, "I regret that Sinti and Roma had to suffer during the period of National Socialism.

"[8] Robert von Dassanowsky indicates that James Cameron's film Titanic echoes and even copies much of what can be found in Tiefland.