The Helsinki Effect
July 1975. Thirty-five world leaders gather in Helsinki for an unprecedented three day Cold War extravaganza: The Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe, known by the sexy acronym CSCE. THE HELSINKI EFFECT is an all-archival essay, that explores the power narratives and myths of the Cold War era. Based on the archival footage, the film deconstructs the anatomy of an often misunderstood diplomatic process, and reveals how it came to impact the world in a decisive way. All this told with a great deal of entertainment and by AI voices of Leonid Brezhnev and Henry Kissinger.
Arthur Franck is a documentary filmmaker from Helsinki. He has been making documentaries for over 15 years. He runs the production company Polygraf with producer Sandra Enkvist. His films have been selected for CPH:DOX, HotDocs, True/False, DokLeipzig, the Chicago International Film Festival, and DocsBarcelona. The Hypnotist was nominated for Best Documentary and Best Editing at the 2020 Jussi Awards in Finland and won Best Feature Film at the 2019 Tampere Film Festival. Franck was a member of the board of trustees of the 2019-2021 Docpoint Film Festival and is currently chairman of the Finnish Documentary Guild.