The Last Spy
Director: Katharina Otto-Bernstein
Germany/USA | 2025 | English and German with English subtitles | 106 min
NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE
Introduction by Karin Oehlenschlaeger, Program Curator, Goethe-Institut Boston
Peter Sichel—aka the “Jewish James Bond” as friends called him—was one of the first recruits to the CIA and served as CIA station chief in postwar Berlin, running covert operations during the Cold War. This gripping documentary from Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker Katharina Otto-Bernstein, tells Sichel’s extraordinary life story. The Sichel family, German-Jews who owned a successful wine business, barely escaped Nazi Germany, immigrating first to France and then to New York. Multi-lingual and exceptionally bright, Sichel enlisted in the U.S. Army to fight Hitler and was immediately commissioned to the OSS and trained to turn German POWs into spies. Thus began a brilliant and dangerous career that would lead to his taking part in the formation of the CIA and America’s prolonged involvement in the Cold War. Sichel recounts his experiences as a Jewish refugee and then CIA spymaster in Berlin, Washington, and Hong Kong in this real-life film noir. Before he died in 2025 at age 102, Sichel sat down for a wide-ranging interview, providing a sharp, often witty, first person account from someone who was “in the room” for many of the 20th century’s key historical events.
Winner – Best of Fest Audience Award, Palm Springs International Film Festival
“Fascinating… There is enough material to fill a miniseries, never mind a single feature.” –Screen Daily
Photo: Peter Sichel with Gloria Steinem (left)
Co-Presented by Goethe-Institut Boston New Films From Germany Series
