Our Northern Neighbour
1944 · 21m · Canada
Directed by Tom Daly
Genres: documentary, historical, war
Tones: contemplative
Soviet foreign policy from 1917 through the Second World War is examined for the historical pressures behind it and for what makes the Soviet Union a valuable wartime ally.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A 1944 NFB doc arguing the Soviets are actually good guys? That's either the most earnest Cold War propaganda or a genuinely weird historical artifact—either way, I'm annoyed it's too straightforward to be interesting.
Daly's wartime essay sits comfortably in the documentary-as-public-argument tradition, and the formal restraint of its 21 minutes shows real discipline in making geopolitics legible through montage and voice; a text that understands its own historical moment.
The choice to let archival footage and sober narration do the heavy lifting instead of reconstructed drama means everything rides on rhythm and juxtaposition—that's where Daly's editing either makes the case or doesn't.