The Last Spy
Co-presented by the Goethe-Institut Boston and The National Center for Jewish Film’s Annual Film Festival.
“Fascinating … There is enough material to fill a miniseries, never mind a single feature.” – Screen Daily
Peter Sichel—aka the “Jewish James Bond” as friends called him—was one of the first recruits to the CIA and served as 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 the country’s prolonged involvement in the Cold War.
Sichel recounts his experiences as a Jewish refugee and then CIA spymaster in Berlin, Washington, and HongKong 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 - Palm Springs International Film Festival – Best of Fest Audience Award 2026
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