A film about a pointless conference that changed everything.

The CSCE was the starting shot for the slow but sure collapse of communist authoritarian rule in Eastern Europe. The Helsinki Effect offers new perspectives on the events of the Cold War. The film explores the CSCE process, which had a significant impact on the end of the Cold War, and sheds light on secret top-level discussions behind closed doors, brought to life through AI-generated voice simulations.

It is 1 August 1975, and 35 world leaders are seated in a row at Finlandia Hall, ready to sign the Helsinki Accords. After years of tense and exhausting negotiations, Gerald Ford, Leonid Brezhnev, Harold Wilson, Erich Honecker, Olof Palme, Josip Broz Tito and others have arrived in our capital for the final phase of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

They are being hosted by President Urho Kekkonen, who is at the pinnacle of his career. The happiest of all is Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, as the conference and the resulting agreement are his brainchild. From the outset, the legacy of the CSCE was marred by disputes and contradictions. Most critics, including the sceptical US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, would change their minds 15 years later when the far-reaching effects sparked by the conference began to surface.

Duration: 1 hour 28 min
Language: Finnish and other languages, subtitled in Finnish

Free entry!