1. Your Neighbour's Son (Your Neighbour's Son)
The film documents the conversion of young Greek Military Police recruits into torturers and touches on the subject of the power of the institution to compel otherwise moral human beings to torture. The documentary examines the processes and methods of the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974.
2. MK Ultra
The Rosie Kay Dance Company present a piece about the strange history and pop-cultural aftermath of CIA mind control experiments during the Cold War, with documentary segments by Adam Curtis.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
3. The Wall
Like the best USIA films, The Wall distills political events into an emotionally clear and compelling ideological "story". In 1962 Walter de Hoog gathered footage from U.S. and German newsreel sources and crafted this taut short film about the first year of the Berlin Wall. Straightforward, keenly balanced narration portrays Berliners as "accepting the wall but never resigned to it". The extraordinary footage of the first escapes was propaganda enough-- His challenge was to make the politics human.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
4. K-19: Doomsday Submarine
The disastrous first combat patrol of the K-19, the Soviet Union's first atomic-powered nuclear missile submarine.
5. Winston Churchill: A Giant in the Century (Winston Churchill : Un géant dans le siècle)
A new look at the public and private life of one of the most important statesmen in the history of Europe: Winston Churchill , soldier, politician, writer, painter, leader of his country in the darkest hours, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, a myth, a giant of the 20th century.
It has an average vote of 7.7 on TMDB.
6. Täuschung - Die Methode Reagan (Täuschung - Die Methode Reagan)
A documentary about US-led covert actions under the Reagan administration intended to bolster the perception of Soviet aggression, undermine the peace initiatives of Sweden's PM Olof Palme, and to tie the non-aligned Sweden to NATO.
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
7. Kourou et l'épopée spatiale française (Kourou et l'épopée spatiale française)
(Kourou et l'épopée spatiale française)
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
8. Intercept: A Century of Signals Intelligence
A thought provoking documentary feature film providing a comprehensive exploration of the evolution of signals intelligence over the past century. Whether you're intrigued by the secretive world of intelligence agencies or concerned about the implications of digital surveillance, this film will leave you with a deeper understanding of the role signals intelligence plays in society.
9. Theatre of Hope (Théâtre de l'Espérance)
The film is set to bring forward once again the well-worn images of the summit talks between Reagan and Gorbachev in Geneva. It is a reproduction of the days during the summit. On the one hand, pictures are gathered from the perspective as an onlooker in Geneva, on the other hand, the old television footage is processed.
10. The Spy Who Ended Up in the Cold (Spionen som hamnade i kylan)
A documentary spy thriller that takes place during the Cold War but which gets its resolution today in the small village of Burträsk outside Umeå, northern Sweden. A deeply-believing priest, well-liked and respected by everyone or a ruthless spy who has no hesitation in referring his friends and colleagues to the dreaded security service STASI in the former GDR. Who is Aleksander Radler, the man with two different personalities?
11. CIA vs KGB: Battleground Berlin (KGB-CIA, au corps à corps)
For 50 years, Berlin was the symbol of the Cold War. The city at the heart of the intelligence war between the US and the Soviet bloc. Thousands of KGB or CIA, agents observed each other, cogs in the biggest information war in history.
12. My Favorite War (Mans mīļākais karš)
Ilze Burkovska, a little girl who is obsessed with stories of World War II and will be a filmmaker in a distant future, lives in Latvia under the totalitarian boot of the Soviets and the ominous shadow of the many menaces and horrors of the Cold War.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
13. Ice-Breaker: The '72 Summit Series
September 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series, the iconic hockey tournament that pitted the best players from Canada against the best from the Soviet Union. It has been universally acknowledged as a defining event in Canadian history. This inspiring new documentary enlarges the canvas to tell the story from the unique perspectives of a diverse cast of participants who are rarely if ever heard: diplomats, NHL hockey legends, Soviet players, journalists, fans, broadcasters, business leaders and Team Canada’s Chairman – all reveal untold, exclusive stories about what happened before, during, and after September ‘72.
14. Railway Station (Dworzec)
Kieslowski’s later film Dworzec portrays the atmosphere at Central Station in Warsaw after the rush hour.
It has an average vote of 4.8 on TMDB.
15. The Cars We Drove into Capitalism (Колите, с които нахлухме в капитализма)
A cinematic, character-driven insight to what it meant to produce and to own a car in communist times: the Socialist propaganda dreams and the hard reality of living that dream. The freedom that these slow and clumsy vehicles were giving to their owners; the cars as an instrument in the Cold War battle; legends and homemade tune-ups as an attempt to stand at least a little bit off the crowd.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
16. Spies: The Dirty Game of Espionage
You are about to enter the world of double-cross and triple-cross, of information and disinformation, of betrayal, blackmail, and murder. It is the world of international espionage with recently declassified and never before seen footage. A made-to-VHS documentary from the 1990s.
It has an average vote of 4 on TMDB.
17. Der neue Kalte Krieg – Mehr Atomwaffen für Europa? (Der neue Kalte Krieg – Mehr Atomwaffen für Europa?)
(Der neue Kalte Krieg – Mehr Atomwaffen für Europa?)
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
18. Bond Girls Are Forever
Through vintage film clips of past Bond movie epics, and with the participation of several former "Bond Girls" as interviewees , the documentary traces the evolution of the typical James Bond heroine from decorative damsel in distress to gutsy participant in the action.
It has an average vote of 5.8 on TMDB.
19. The KGB Connections: An Investigation into Soviet Operations in North America
Documentary - This 1982 film explains the KGB infiltration of America. Who they are, what they are doing, and how well they have infiltrated North America. - Harold Brown, Nikita Khrushchev, V.I. Lenin
20. How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin
In August 1962, director Leslie Woodhead made a two-minute film in Liverpool's Cavern Club with a raw and unrecorded group of rockers called the Beatles. He arranged their first live TV appearances on a local show in Manchester and watched as the Fab Four phenomenon swept the world. Twenty-five years later while making films in Russia, Woodhead became aware of how, even though they were never able to play in the Soviet Union, the Beatles' legend had soaked into the lives of a generation of kids. This film meets the Soviet Beatles generation and hears their stories about how the Fab Four changed their lives, including Putin's deputy premier Sergei Ivanov, who explains how the Beatles helped him learn English and showed him another life.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.