The Helsinki Effect

‘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.