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.