In an isolated mountain village in the Dolomites, the painter Vigo meets a young woman named Junta. She is ostracised by the superstitious villagers who consider her a witch. They believe that numerous young men, lured by Junta’s beauty, have followed her towards a mysterious blue light on Monte Cristallo and fallen to their deaths. Vigo wins the affection of the shy hermit. He moves into her hut and one night, he discovers her secret … For her directing debut, Leni Riefenstahl also wrote the script with critic Béla Balázs. The film was an outlier in two respects. Made not only outside of the established Berlin studio system, it was also something of a ‘chick flick’ within the mountain film genre – movies made by and with men, and heavy on athleticism and documentary-style images. The film was shot on location and used many non-professional actors from Italy’s Sarntal. Das blaue Licht renders a landscape of heart and soul, with the use of infrared-sensitive film stock providing unreal effects. Thus the portrayal of Junta, the outcast, fluctuates between fairy tale and horror film, and her sexuality between carefree delight and violent nightmare.