Lowlands

Tiefland (Lowlands) is a 1954 German film directed, produced, co-written, edited by and starring Leni Riefenstahl, and based on the 1903 eponymous opera composed by Eugen d'Albert and written Rudolph Lothar and based itself in the 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 listed as the feature film with the longest production time in history by the Guinness Book of World Records. Despite this record being surpassed by The Thief and the Cobbler (with 30 years of production from 1964 to 1995), Tiefland still stands as the live action film with the longest production time. 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 Alfred Licho, with Lil Dagover as the main actress. The earlier American silent movie Martha of the Lowlands (1914) was based on the English translation of a Spanish translation of Guimerà's play.