The Helsinki Effect

July 29th 1975. Thirty-five world leaders gather at Finlandia Hall in Helsinki for an unprecedented three day Cold War extravaganza: The Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe, sometimes referred to as The Helsinki Accord, or known by the sexy acronym CSCE. The Helsinki Effect is an immersive all-archival experience that, through the lens of this three-day event, encapsulates the central geopolitical narratives of the 20th century.

The Soviet Union had pushed for this conference since 1954, in order to establish legitimacy over the European borders as they stood, to nullify the relevance of NATO and to gain the respectability it so desperately craved from the world. The U.S. and Western Europe were initially reluctant to play ball, but by the late 1960s, they identified an opportunity to use the conference as a vehicle to pressure the Soviet Union to embrace democratic principles, such as human rights, freedom of information and freedom of movement east of the Iron Curtain. And after years of exhausting negotiations in Helsinki and Geneva, here they all were to sign the final agreement. Ford, Brezhnev, Wilson, Honecker, Trudeau, Palme, Ceausescu and Tito were among the impressive line-up of attendees.

But far from everyone was impressed with the motives of the conference. The Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn said the agreement was the “funeral of eastern Europe” and The New York Times called it “misguided and empty”. Thus, the legacy of the CSCE is tainted by contradiction. Most critics, including the highly skeptical U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, would however change their minds twenty years later.

Based on hundreds of hours of archival footage, The Helsinki Effect deconstructs the anatomy of an often misunderstood diplomatic process, and reveals how it came to impact the world in a decisive way. Through recently declassified transcripts of top level conversations held behind closed doors, reimagined through AI Voice Simulation technology, the film conveys unique perspectives on Cold War power brokering.

The motifs that take shape in the film are familiar from our present day reality: realism vs. principles; hope vs. cynicism; peace vs. imperial anxiety.

Running time: 88 min
Age limit: All ages admitted
Language: English
Subtitles: Finnish
Director: Arthur Franck
Script: Arthur Franck
Producers: Sandra Enkvist, Arthur Franck ja Oskar Forstén

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