The Last Spy

Peter Sichel, who was known to his friends as the “Jewish James Bond”, was one of the earliest recruits to the CIA, becoming the agency’s first station chief in postwar Berlin. This riveting documentary tells Sichel’s extraordinary life story, which intersected directly with many key historical events from World War II to the Cold War. Aged 100 years old at the time of the interviews in the film but still sharp as a tack, Sichel recounts his years as a CIA spymaster in Berlin, Washington and Hong Kong with a frank directness and a gleefully wicked sense of humour. As a German-Jewish man who fled Europe with his family before World War II broke out and worked as a covert operative during the early days of the Cold War, Sichel’s wisdom and insight into today’s global conflicts carry significant weight.