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| Arthur Franck: The Helsinki Effect (FI 2025). © Polygraf Oy |
FI/NO/DE © 2025 Polygraf Oy / Kloos & Co / Indie Film AS. EX: Sandra Enkvist, Arthur Franck.
A documentary film. A montage film. List of sources detailed at Elonet: The Helsinki Effect.
D+SC+ Narrator: Arthur Franck. Graphic design: Antti Uotila. M: Uno Helmersson, Patrik Andrén. S: Yngve Leidulv Sætre, Thomas Angell Endresen. ED: Markus Leppälä, Arthur Franck. Special acknowledgement: Eva Andberg (YLE Arkisto). Special acknowledgement: United States Department of State (memos 1969-1975).
Subtitles: Aretta Vähälä, Carita Collins.
88 min
Gala premiere: 3 Feb 2025 Finlandia Hall, opening of the OSCE, Helsinki
Festival premiere: 19-30 March 2025 CPH:DOX / DOX:AWARD Competition, Copenhagen
Finnish premiere: 11 April 2025 - distributor: Elokuvatuotantoyhtiö Polygraf Oy
Viewed on Sunday 18 May 2025, Kinopalatsi 6, Kaisaniemenkatu 2, 00100 Helsinki
CSCE = Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (1975)
OSCE = Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, originating in CSCE (1975).
Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
Erich Honecker, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Gerald Ford, President of the United States
Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria
Leo Tindemans, Prime Minister of Belgium
Todor Zhivkov, Chairman of the State Council of Bulgaria
Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
Makarios III, President of Cyprus
Anker Jørgensen, Prime Minister of Denmark
Carlos Arias Navarro, Prime Minister of Spain
Urho Kekkonen, President of Finland
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, President of France (who also serves as Co-Prince of Andorra however no such function at all is mentioned in the declaration)
Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Konstantinos Karamanlis, Prime Minister of Greece
János Kádár, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party
Liam Cosgrave, Taoiseach of Ireland
Geir Hallgrímsson, Prime Minister of Iceland
Aldo Moro, Prime Minister of Italy
Walter Kieber, Prime Minister of Liechtenstein
Gaston Thorn, Prime Minister of Luxembourg
Dom Mintoff, Prime Minister of Malta
André Saint-Mleux, Minister of State of Monaco
Trygve Bratteli, Prime Minister of Norway
Joop den Uyl, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
Edward Gierek, First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party
Francisco da Costa Gomes, President of Portugal
Nicolae Ceaușescu, President of Romania
Gian Luigi Berti, Captain Regent of San Marino
Agostino Casaroli, Cardinal Secretary of State
Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden
Pierre Graber, President of the Swiss Confederation
Gustáv Husák, President of Czechoslovakia
Süleyman Demirel, Prime Minister of Turkey
Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia
PROMOTION MATERIAL FOR THE OSCE, FINLANDIA HALL, 3 FEB 2025
50th Anniversary of the CSCE. Opening of Finland's 2025 chairmanship of the OSCE (chairman-in-office: Elina Valtonen, Minister for Foreign Affairs)
Suomi toimii tänä vuonna Euroopan turvallisuus- ja yhteistyöjärjestön (Etyj) puheenjohtajana. Tänä vuonna tulee myös kuluneeksi 50 vuotta Etykin konferenssista ja Helsingin päätösasiakirjan allekirjoittamisesta Finlandia-talossa Helsingissä.
ELOKUVA
Arthur Franckin ohjaama ja käsikirjoittama The Helsinki Effect on satiirista huumoria ja yllätyksellisiä tarinankerrontatapoja sisältävä kotimainen dokumenttielokuva. Etyk oli lähtölaukaus kommunistisen autoritaarisen hallinnon hitaalle mutta varmalle romahtamiselle Itä-Euroopassa. The Helsinki Effect kertoo kylmän sodan loppumiseen suuresti vaikuttaneesta Etyk-prosessista ja valaisee salaisia huipputason keskusteluja suljettujen ovien takana, tekoälyllä toteutettujen äänisimulaatioiden kautta.
SYNOPSIS
On elokuun ensimmäinen päivä 1975, ja kolmekymmentäviisi maailman johtajaa istuvat rivissä Finlandia-talolla valmiudessa allekirjoittamaan Helsingin päätösasiakirjaa. Vuosia kestäneiden kireiden ja uuvuttavien neuvottelujen jälkeen mm. Gerald Ford, Leonid Brezhnev, Harold Wilson, Erich Honecker, Olof Palme, ja Josip Broz Tito ovat saapuneet pääkaupunkiimme Euroopan turvallisuus- ja yhteistyökonferenssin viimeistä vaihetta varten. Heitä isännöi uransa huipentumaa elävä presidentti Urho Kekkonen. Kaikista onnellisin on Neuvostoliiton pääsihteeri Leonid Brezhnev, sillä konferenssi ja sen tuottama sopimus on hänen lempilapsensa. Etykin perintö oli alusta alkaen kiistojen ja ristiriitojen tahraama. Useimmat kriitikot, mukaan lukien skeptinen Yhdysvaltain ulkoministeri Henry Kissinger, muuttaisivat mielensä 15 vuotta myöhemmin, kun konferenssista alkunsa saaneet vaikutukset nousivat pinnalle.
PROMOTION TEXT FOR THE CPH:DOX FESTIVAL, COPENHAGEN, 19-30 MARCH 2025
The Helsinki Effect on satiirista huumoria ja yllätyksellisiä tarinankerrontatapoja sisältävä uusi suomalainen dokumenttielokuva. Se tarjoaa uusia näkökulmia kylmän sodan tapahtumiin ja valaisee salaisia huipputason keskusteluja suljettujen ovien takana, tekoälyllä toteutettujen äänisimulaatioiden kautta. Etyk oli lähtölaukaus kommunistisen autoritaarisen hallinnon hitaalle mutta varmalle romahtamiselle Itä-Euroopassa.
ELOKUVA
On elokuun ensimmäinen päivä 1975, ja kolmekymmentäviisi maailman johtajaa istuvat rivissä Finlandia-talolla valmiudessa allekirjoittamaan Helsingin päätösasiakirjaa. Vuosia kestäneiden kireiden ja uuvuttavien neuvottelujen jälkeen mm. Gerald Ford, Leonid Brezhnev, Harold Wilson, Erich Honecker, Olof Palme, ja Josip Broz Tito ovat saapuneet pääkaupunkiimme Euroopan turvallisuus- ja yhteistyökonferenssin viimeistä vaihetta varten. Heitä isännöi uransa huipentumaa elävä presidentti Urho Kekkonen. Kaikista onnellisin on Neuvostoliiton pääsihteeri Leonid Brezhnev, sillä konferenssi ja sen tuottama sopimus on hänen lempilapsensa. Etykin perintö oli alusta alkaen kiistojen ja ristiriitojen tahraama. Useimmat kriitikot, kuten skeptinen Yhdysvaltain ulkoministeri Henry Kissinger, muuttaisivat mielensä 15 vuotta myöhemmin, kun konferenssista alkunsa saaneet vaikutukset nousivat pinnalle.
Chapter 1: Whatever the Soviet Union Wants
Chapter 2: Finland's Unending Task
Chapter 3: Acronyms
Chapter 4: We Want a Document
Chapter 5: We Were Drawn Along
Chapter 6: The 19 and the 20 Are the Same Thing
Chapter 7: A Welcome Change
Chapter 8: At First We Needed to Be Patient
Chapter 9: Written in Suahili
Chapter 10: The Meeting About Baskets
AA: Arthur Franck's The Helsinki Effect has its premiere 50 years after the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE).
Seen in May 2025, it appears also in the perspective of the 80th Victory in Europe Day / Tag der Befreiung / Jour de la Victoire.
It is striking to realize that the CSCE took place only 30 years after WWII. This means that all the 35 protagonists (besides European heads of state, leaders of the United States, Canada and the Holy See / Vatican City) belonged to generations that had experienced the war.
A documentary film on an international conference is full of possibilities to become boring. Franck faces the challenge head on, attacks treasure troves of archival documents with relish and overcomes the danger of boredom with witty montage.
Finland was in charge of the many stages of the conference during seven years. Yle (the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation) recorded and archived the conference in extenso. Eva Andberg from the Yle Archive was Franck's liaison.
To cover a vast amount of material in 88 minutes, Franck resorts to the art of the collage and the compilation. To enliven written transcripts, he gives Leonid Brezhnev and Henry Kissinger the voice via artificial intelligence.
Nothing could be taken for granted. Despite the long gestation period, many were cynical and skeptical. Finland was seen as Kremlin's errand boy. The Alexander Solzhenitsyn affair (the Nobel Prize, the publication of the Gulag Archipelago and the expulsion from Russia) coincided with the CSCE preparations, and Solzhenitsyn denounced the CSCE. The New York Times was against the CSCE. Kissinger took a cynical stand. For him, the CSCE was not a big deal.
15 years later, tables turned. The Iron Curtain fell and the Cold War ended.
There were three baskets in the conference preparations: 1) European security, 2) economy, science and environment and 3) culture and exchange of ideas and information.
The First Basket was about the final official confirmation of the borders after WWII. It boiled down to the question of the status quo of East Germany and West Germany.
The Third Basket, the one about soft power, was the hardest part, as can be understood by the Solzhenitsyn affair. Ronald Reagan condemned the CSCE becaused it legalized the status of the Eastern European countries in the Soviet sphere of interest. But the seventh point of the Helsinki accords promoted also "respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief", and the eighth point the "self-determination of peoples".
These might sound like empty words, but they became a reality in the Helsinki Committees (the first of which was founded in Moscow in 1976), the Helsinki Watch and the Human Rights Watch. Among others, John Lewis Gaddis (in The Cold War) claims that the Helsinki Accords gradually became a manifesto of the dissident and liberal movement.
In world history, the Helsinki process played an important part in détente. Tiny Finland pursued a role as a Nordic peacemaking nation also in hosting the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), launched in 1969. But Finland's most lasting contribution on the world stage was in the CSCE, the détente and the Helsinki Spirit. Finland turned its status of neutrality into a strength in world diplomacy, and as a bonus gained increased prestige and safety for its own existence.
All this comes to life in The Helsinki Effect. Arthur Franck and his protagonists are no strangers to controversy. They thrive in it.
Franck's greatest achievement is catching something about the essence of diplomacy. We have the endless speeches and official protocols which can be boring. But we also get a sense of unspoken layers, currents and undercurrents.
Every nation presents an impeccable, idealistic facade. Immediately below the surface is naked self-interest, brutal power play, and the drive to sustain spheres of interest.
But there are also points of mutual interest such as the need to control the arms race and pursue nuclear disarmament. These men had all experienced the war and knew that their peoples wanted peace.
Diplomacy is a field where human beings are in direct touch with other human beings. It is impossible to truly read another person without meeting him/her. Diplomacy itself is a medium for peace, because it helps understand not only the official formulations but complexities which remain confidential.
...
The film is full of fascinating detail. In A US State Department memo, talking with Kissinger, Richard Nixon wonders in passing what NATO is doing anymore.
...
For me this movie is personal. In 1973-1974 I carried out my military service at the mortar company in the Karelia Brigade at Vekaranjärvi. When I was offered the opportunity to conduct the evening prayer, I chose CSCE as the subject.
After the military, I worked for the first time in a job based on my qualifications: to codify for computer runs Le Monde and its coverage of the Third Basket. I learned how complex the subject could be.
During the military service, besides heavy lifting on mortar marches, I gained from evening reading at the garnison library. I learned about the three cornerstones of Finnish security politics: foreign politics, diplomacy and the defense forces. I learned to respect all three.
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