The Helsinki Effect
Arthur Franck / Finland / 2025 / World Premiere / 87 min
Hundreds of hours of archival footage from a historic Cold War summit is rolled out with ironic wit and a sharp political eye for the human drama on the grand, diplomatic stage.
The Cold War was frozen solid when world leaders from East and West met in Helsinki in the summer of 1975 to discuss security and cooperation. A political chess game with world peace at stake, and a historic event that no one could really agree on the meaning of. But at least everyone was there. Ford, Brezhnev, Wilson, Honecker, Trudeau, Palme, Ceaușescu and Tito. And the three-day conference was documented in great detail.
‘The Helsinki Effect’ brushes the dust off the film reels and analyzes the diplomatic theater with formidable, ironic wit and a keen eye for the vanity and pettiness between the formal lines. But based on hundreds of hours of archival footage and newly declassified transcripts of high-level conversations, director Arthur Franck also uncovers how the Helsinki conference came to have a profound impact on the world – and how it resonates today in a troubled world, 50 years later.
‘The Helsinki Effect’ is a rare bird. A witty, entertaining and insightful film about why the world ends up looking the way it does. And one that takes history seriously enough to also spot its curious footnotes.