The Helsinki Effect

 

Finnish President Urho Kekkonen smokes a peace pipe

Director Arthur Franck

THE HELSINKI EFFECT       B                                                                                        Finland  (88 mi)  2025  d: Arthur Franck

The Helsinki Effect is an archival dream of the Cold War, which is more about historiography than history itself.  Basically, the film is an atmospheric mood that is fueled by the windmills of history.       —Director Arthur Franck

In 1975, thirty-five world leaders gathered in Helsinki’s massive Finlandia Hall, the last major work of Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto, for an unprecedented three-day Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), otherwise known as The Helsinki Accord, a study of diplomacy in setting out principles to guide their relations in respect to sovereignty and borders, rejection of force, protection of human rights and freedoms, and the right to self-determination, where the aim of the negotiations was to adopt a framework for “security and cooperation in Europe,” gathering 27 capitalist and 8 socialist states, producing literally hundreds of hours of archival footage.  It should be noted, as a point of perspective, that this was the same year American troops finally withdrew from Saigon, effectively ending the Vietnam War after a long and protracted war, while the CSCE led to the formation of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which continues to hold influence today.  The director on hand at the screening, who is chairman of the Finnish Documentary Guild, acknowledged that his initial priority in making the film was shooting no new footage, like adding historical experts weighing in, offering their views, instead relying entirely upon archival footage from State television, declassified documents, recently released transcripts including years of prior negotiations and side conversations, and then diving in headfirst in a scholarly manner in order to decipher what at the time didn’t seem like much of an accomplishment, often viewed as a pointless exhibition of futility.  Finland’s role in all this is major, closely aligned with the Soviet Union at the time, sharing a lengthy 830-mile border with Russia, and have always had to maintain a role of neutrality so as not to upset them.  In what could never have been anticipated then, Finland, after more than half a century as a neutral state, quickly joined the EU and NATO after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, becoming a model in economic development and education, finally catching up with the economic standard of the rest of Western Europe.  As human rights and fundamental freedoms are facing new challenges in Europe, this agreement turned out to be the blueprint by which all the dissident factions held the Soviet Union to stand by the agreement they signed, allowing more freedoms to rise from within Eastern Europe, including Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia and the Solidarity movement in Poland, leading to Helsinki-86 in Latvia, the first openly anti-Communist organization, as well as the establishment of the Helsinki Human Rights Watch Groups, like Helsinki Watch, a precursor to Human Rights Watch, designed to monitor the Soviet Union’s compliance with the 1975 agreement, all helping to pave the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall and bring about an end of the Cold War, with the declaration becoming a cornerstone of European cooperation.  Deconstructing this misunderstood diplomatic milestone, using rare footage, it explores how a grand political performance turned into a turning point in world history, unpacking Cold War myths with sharp insight and a healthy dose of dark humor, using AI-generated audio voices of Brezhnev and Kissinger in order to allow the filmmaker an absurdly hilarious opportunity to simulate calling them on the phone, while also revealing an amusing side of world leaders behind closed doors.  Part of the problem is AI’s role in the translation of documents and the recreation of voices for some of the diplomats, notably Kissinger and Brezhnev, who spoke English for the first time, a language he never spoke during his lifetime.

This was a mammoth session, the largest since the Second World War in Europe, with all the heads of state and foreign ministers of Europe, with the exception of Andorra and Albania, in addition to Canada and the USA.  Marking the 50th anniversary, the signing of the CSCE Final Act on August 1, 1975 was preceded by 672 days of preliminary work, which also shows Franck’s film in detail, as again and again he jumps around between decades to illustrate the “larger context.”  The leaders of the superpowers 50 years ago were bitterly opposed, but they still met and diplomatically negotiated with each other to achieve peace.  Told in twelve chapters, seemingly made by Erol Morris, as the screen simply zips by, this event achieves what would be considered impossible today, astonishingly bringing together world leaders after years of tense and exhausting negotiations, like American President Gerald Ford, Soviet Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and East German General Secretary Erich Honecker (both sitting next to each other at the signing), Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme (who would be assassinated a decade later), Yugoslavian President Josip Tito, all hosted by Finland’s President Urho Kekkonen.  No one was more skeptical than American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who mockingly acknowledged, “The conference can never end with a meaningful document.  From me, they can write it in Swahili,” yet he would later change his mind in the third and final volume of his memoirs published fifteen years later.  Just a year earlier, Soviet author and dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and flown to West Germany, yet he denounced the summit, calling it “the funeral of Eastern Europe,” as did The New York Times, claiming it was “misguided and empty,” suggesting it was much ado about nothing.  Echoing Kissinger’s frustration, the accord was poorly received by the American media, which declared it, wrongly, as a victory for the authoritarian governments of the communist world.  History books even perpetuated this warped view.  Marred by controversy and contradictions from the beginning, the multitude of different voices in the room produced an arduously slow going process, seemingly an endless diplomatic struggle without producing tangible results.  Accordingly, Finnish film director Arthur Franck, who also narrates the film in an irreverent, often self-deprecating tone, ironically states at the beginning that the subject of the film is boring, combing through massive amounts of archival materials, yet somehow he transforms this into something coherent, relevant, and even fun, as we watch highly skilled diplomats botch their opening speeches, politicians sleeping in the conference halls, or Brezhnev in swimwear, repeatedly seen combing his hair and bushy eyebrows in front of a mirror, interspersed with comically clumsy moments from TV studios around Europe and the U.S.  You can see waiting, smoking, and yawning television correspondents of all countries, almost entirely men.  What this suggests is that slow diplomacy may be boring, but it’s worth taking the time, as it’s also highly effective, a platform where words and understandings matter, considering the alternative that exists today, when bloviating world leaders blatantly disregard these agreements by undermining traditional multilateral alliances, with an all but useless and dysfunctional United Nations that refuses to intervene, and war resuming across all fronts.      

More than just the sum of its parts, this documentary demonstrates the subtle art of material selection and narration, breathing life into history with insightful connections, new and enlightening interpretations, and humor, brought together with a playful and experimental approach, with the filmmaker acknowledging “I only know what I was looking for when I find it.”  The central characters are Henry Kissinger, the U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, whose main achievements are not trivial, but he will be remembered for cozying up to dictators, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, as the idea to hold the conference was actually his, literally fixated on obtaining an agreement, and Finland’s longest serving President, Urho Kekkonen, who was instrumental in getting the two sides to the table.  Derided by the American media as a Soviet ally, Kekkonen knew what he was doing in securing peace for his nation, perhaps uniquely situated with its history between East and West, between two postwar superpowers, both heavily armed with nuclear weapons.  In Moscow, this agreement was touted as a great success, since it meant that the West finally accepted the new borders that had been drawn in Europe after the end of World War II, including the division of Germany, basically legitimizing Soviet rule in Eastern Europe.  While no one really questioned the borders, established at the Yalta Conference in 1945, followed by the Paris Peace Treaty in 1947, Brezhnev was afraid of losing ground, recognizing the inviolability of existing state boundaries and what that could mean to his legacy, so he insisted on opening a new diplomatic front.  Broken down into three sections, borders, economics, and human rights, each side had their own self-serving interests, with the Soviets craving the first two, while the Americans and Europeans held out extensively for the third, yet all sides made concessions, at times painful ones.  Brezhnev wanted nothing to do with the third section, complaining that it threatened domestic affairs, but the Europeans, under the guidance of Kekkonen who agreed to host the final piece of the puzzle, insisted and eventually prevailed.  Just as Brezhnev gets out his pen to sign, the image freezes as the unseen narrator sarcastically tells us that this man is about to make a great mistake.  Brezhnev, however, could barely contain his glee following the signing, while Kissinger dismissed it as boring and irrelevant.  For him, diplomacy is power politics, a game that you have to play to assert your interests.  While images from diplomatic conferences are essentially dry and boring, with endless hours of speeches that many would prefer not to watch, the filmmaker has condensed them into a blend of serious and lighthearted moments, continually altering the mood, keeping viewers on their heels.  The strength of the film lies in its surprising topicality, which is not expected in an all-archival documentary film focusing on political history from half a century ago, but during these uncertain times, the film is a gripping reminder about a meaningless conference that had a profound effect in changing the world, yet more importantly, it painfully shows what our present lacks.  As we watch the very idea of diplomacy being dismantled in the largely ego-fueled, power-hungry authoritarian world of Trump and Putin, this film is a testament to a time when adversaries could find a common ground and actually keep the peace.  Now we see how painfully we miss these basic tenets of international relations.  “Give me more boring speeches and conferences,” Franck says, “as the alternative is always much worse.

2024 Top Ten List #10 The Missile (Ohjus)

 

Director Miia Tervo

THE MISSILE (Ohjus)                      A-                                                                                    Finland  Estonia  (114 mi)  2024  ‘Scope  d: Miia Tervo

Matti Nevala stood in the snow, looking sorrowfully at his melancholy tractor.                            —Esko, The Lapland News editor, hilariously reads aloud to Niina the lame introduction to her first story

What starts out as a zany comedy quickly turns into something else entirely, plunging into a more complex, in-depth examination of dysfunctional relationships and the havoc they wreak, as the abuse of domestic violence is beautifully interwoven into a tale of Finland’s subordinate relationship with Russia, as in each case bullying is the significant factor, requiring a radical shift to overcome an inequitable power dynamic that is emotionally and psychologically damaging.  Led by a phenomenal performance by Oona Airola as Niina, a fragile and insecure woman who transforms herself from a meek, easy to push around single mother of two children whose opinion matters to no one, to a confident, well-informed journalist who suddenly becomes an expert on the dangers of nuclear proliferation, refusing to be pushed aside by authorities as she continues to probe into matters of a government cover-up of mammoth proportions.  Part of what works so well is that she is such a tender, warm-hearted person, so to see her violently brutalized in such grotesque fashion is extremely affecting to viewers, adding an underlying dimension to this historical saga of Cold War political posturing and maneuvering, asking whether it’s possible to fully comprehend the danger lurking under the surface.  In some ways, this potentially disastrous international missile crisis bears a resemblance to Kubrick’s theater-of-the-absurd characterization in DR. STRANGELOVE OR:  HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964), perhaps the ultimate in Cold War satires.  Born and raised in the Finnish Lapland, writer/director Miia Tervo studied film at the Turku Arts Academy before completing her degree in documentary filmmaking at the Helsinki University of Art and Design.  Tervo’s adept storytelling weaves a seamless connection between the past and present, finding ways of defusing decades of national anxiety with a mix of melancholy and deadpan humor, offering a profound exploration of how historical dynamics continue to influence contemporary politics, as this beautifully directed film offers an unglamorous depiction of Scandinavian banality, where alcohol and cigarettes are everywhere, balancing outrageous humor with the in-depth complexities of the characters, accentuating the eccentricities of local personalities with the seriousness in the overall turn of dramatic events, with Niina continually finding herself in ludicrous situations, as authorities blatantly refuse to acknowledge the dire predicament they face.  Plunging viewers into a world of everpresent ice and snow may remind viewers of that sarcastically irreverent tone of the Coen brother’s Fargo (1996).  What starts out as a pleasant family outing, with Niina chopping down a small tree with her two children in tow, frolicking in the wintry snow of an immense forest, quickly turns into a disaster, as the cart carrying the tree comes unhitched, careening down a hill and crashing through a storefront window of a local business establishment in town, The Lapland News.  Apologizing profusely to the proprietor, local newspaper publisher Esko (Hannu-Pekka Björkman), Niina has no money to pay for the extensive damage, so she offers her services, willing to work to pay off her debt.  Initially given minor assignments, staying out of everyone’s way, like searching through the archives for material, she’s surprised to discover a general lack of seriousness in their coverage, where gossip or offbeat human interest stories with a local flair dominate what they print, where their biggest story was about a sock falling into an ice fishing hole, as according to Esko, “Nothing ever happens here.” 

This absurdist dramatic comedy is based on the real-life incident in 1984 of a Soviet SS-N-3 Shaddock surface-to-air missile straying from the Barents Sea, violating both Norwegian and Finnish air space before crashing into Lake Inari, or Inarijärvi, the largest lake in Sápmi, a sparsely populated area located in the northern part of Finnish Lapland (speaking their own dialect), some 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle, (retrieval of soviet missile which landed in finnish waters 28 ...).  While driving to her sister’s wedding, a thunderous sound can be heard off in the distance echoing through the skies, disturbing the quiet of the forest, with radio reports quickly revealing that a missile was fired into Finland from the Soviet Union, which becomes the backdrop of the film.  While Niina wants to pursue this story, aware of potential ominous ramifications, as it might have been carrying a nuclear warhead, where the damage to the pristine environment could be disastrous, Esko has other ideas, as he doesn’t want to upset the locals with such depressing talk.  Despite her limited knowledge as a reporter, Niina throws herself into the story anyway, refusing to accept the military’s explanation that this is a matter of no consequence and nothing to worry about, mocking her interest as simply misguided, rudely dismissing her as a woman while subjecting her to sexist discrimination, where even her family has a hard time taking her seriously, too self-absorbed to give the matter any thought, routinely accepting the word of authorities, believing she’s out of her league.  With her abusive ex-husband Tapio (Tommi Eronen) in prison for assault, the frequently overwhelmed Niina has to take care of the children alone.  Making matters worse, she just lost her bakery job before Christmas and she’s facing personal challenges, not the least of which is her ex-husband is expected to be released soon from prison.  Despite having no training beyond writing “poems about ponies” in school, Niina launches a one-woman investigation into the slowly developing mystery, laboriously searching through the archives, interviewing every quirky character in town, becoming a fervently educated voice for a misinformed community.  The tension escalates when a contingent of serious-looking Finnish military brass descends on the local hotel, but refuse to offer any explanation to the press, with the film illustrating a stark contrast between a secretive and tight-lipped Finland and the more freely reported news in both Norway and Sweden, as Finland could simply not admit that it was a missile.  Looking for leads, Niina strikes up a relationship with a handsome Finnish Air Force pilot Kai Repola (Pyry Kähkönen) who witnessed the incident, hinting that an errant Soviet nuclear cruise missile may be involved.  Their rapport turns intimate, an unexpected romantic diversion, while at the same time Niina’s sister Kaisa (Emma Kilpimaa) has her own wedding that she does not wish to be spoiled, while Niina’s own dysfunctional relationship with her domineering mother Hanski (Milka Ahlroth) is quite striking, as her mother still views her as a child and apparently can’t help but undermine Niina at every turn, continually devaluing her sense of worth, exposing yet another layer of past trauma and abuse, so when her mother says that Finland is a country troubled by a sense of inferiority and unworthiness, Niina knows the feeling.

Sharing a one thousand mile border with Russia and a 1948 border agreement (Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 - Wikipedia), the Finnish government initially classified the incident as a UFO.  And while hotel owners were happy with the extra business, including an international press clamoring for information, this becomes the biggest international news event in the history of the Inari region, turning into a real media circus, where the government was simply not interested in making this a matter of consequence, and was certainly not interested in airing possible differences in public.  In an era of political uncertainty, on the eve of US-Soviet disarmament talks in Geneva, where United States Secretary of State George Shultz was about to meet with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, governments downplayed the incident, where at first the Soviet Union made no comment, while in Finland soldiers scoured the border area by helicopter and snowmobile in the bitter cold, with officials quietly checking with Moscow to see what had happened, as apparently a missile escaped from a military training exercise during a target test.  While the missile itself fell in Inarijärvi, Tervo’s film was actually filmed in Pelkosenniemi and Kemijärvi, where the Kemijärvi Cultural Centre is transformed into the fictional restaurant-hotel Tunturipeikko, with the director claiming “We wanted a film to have a milieu built on locals, not tourists.”  To that end, despite the grim implications, local eateries take advantage of the situation by creating rocket-themed fish dishes and missile-shaped donuts, which quickly sell out.  Making light of the incident is an all too human reaction, with the military continuing to downplay any significance, yet their very presence in such large numbers defies that position, with Niina continually pressing them on just exactly what happened, where her archivist position at the newspaper allows her to fully investigate other incidents and the devastatingly harmful impact on the environment, becoming one of the more persistent voices of the community, and an irritant to the military who grow tired of seeing her.  As Niina obsesses about the missile’s truth and the nation’s boundaries, she confronts the truth about her own personal boundaries, as her overcontrolling ex-husband is released from prison and wants to spend more time with the children, even hoping they could pick up the pieces of their marriage with promises of change, but it is only a matter of time before his true colors show themselves with a horrifically brutal beating, which is simply a shocking development, putting everything else in perspective, where unchecked power has a way of steamrolling its way through malicious, out of control behavior.  This humanized development is extremely effective, where the bully on the block shows its true stripes, as the film masterfully captures the essence of mistreatment and humiliation, reflecting the harsh reality that the citizens and the nation must learn to defend themselves against abuse.  Niina’s persistence in hounding the military for the truth finally pays off when they discover the missile is submerged under the lake, and she’s invited to watch the rather precarious retrieval, which is witnessed by the entire international media and world.  The period soundtrack is fabulous, with Bronski Beat’s No More War, No More War (Remastered) YouTube (4:01), Alphaville’s Forever Young (“…are you gonna drop the bomb or not?”), Alphaville - Forever Young (Official Video HD) YouTube (3:42), and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Enola Gay, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Enola Gay (Official ... YouTube (3:34), fittingly playing while Niina and her family drink in excess and dance in slo-mo, where the irony is not lost that they could soon be obliterated.  The way this film deflects an enormous distortion of reality through absurdist humor and outlandish local character makes this a delight to experience, effortlessly evoking a myriad of emotions while crafting an amalgamation of contrasting genres and tones, becoming a moving essay on the importance of self-worth, accentuated by such an empowered, deeply humane performance by Oona Airola that makes this immensely appealing.