Documentary Feature
Spy Capital: Vienna
Directed by 
Boris Volodarsky
AFIN 2024 Finalist
- 2024
- 1h 14m
-
Austria - English
- G
Stills
1 framePart of this film's cast or crew? Let us know to add or correct credits, genres or details. Filmmaker sign-in opens with the claim email at Awards Night, 19 September 2026.
Credits
Written by
Produced by
Starring
Music & Sound
Synopsis
It is a commonly accepted fact among professionals that Vienna, Austria, is and has long been the world capital of espionage. A team of documentary filmmakers asked internationally renowned experts to prove or disprove this claim. The results exceeded all expectations. The experts: Dr Boris B. Volodarsky, Intelligence Historian and writer, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London; Gert Rene Polli, former head of the BVT, the Austrian equivalent of MI5; Professor Gerhard Mangott specializing in International Relations and Security in the post-Soviet region; General Oleg Kalugin (ret.), former head of foreign counterintelligence of the KGB’s foreign intelligence arm; Christo Grozev, leading investigative journalist, 2023 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature ‘Navalny’, and others. Filmed in a modern style with many computer effects and meticulous re-enactment of spy episodes in real places based on original documents and footing, the documentary traces the 150-year-long history of international espionage between 1873 and the present using Vienna as a hub. The original musical theme ‘Undercover’ composed by Peter Sax was written especially for this film.
Director's Statement
Before I started shooting Spy Capital in Vienna, I published at least four books where the Austrian capital was mentioned as a hub for spies. As a former special operations officer of Soviet military intelligence trained to operate deep behind the lines, Vienna was one of my potential targets in case of deployment should there be an armed conflict between Russia and the West, so I knew the city pretty well from an operational point of view. I had also lived there for over fifteen years before moving to London to investigate the murder of Alexander Litvinenko at the same time consulting international film studios on spy techniques and taking part in several documentaries. Every place where Spy Capital episodes were filmed is authentic and every character is a real person with a real name. Some of the former spies mentioned in the documentary are still alive and all experts who contributed to the film were in this or that way involved in real covert operations. Based on my own experience and their knowledge I sought to demonstrate that espionage is a serious business and nowhere else it is more evident than in Vienna.
What makes this one special
- Australian PremiereThe filmmaker tells us this is where it happens
- One of just 3 films from Austria across eight seasons
- A first-time filmmaker
Director's Biography
Boris Volodarsky Director
Boris Volodarsky is an English historian, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, specialising in Intelligence History, which he has studied for almost 30 years. Volodarsky has a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Since 2010, Volodarsky has been a Research Fellow at the LSE's Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies; a member of the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar; and a member of the World Association of International Studies (WAIS), Stanford University, USA. Featured in: GQ, Wall Street Journal, Times, SKY, Discovery +, ITV ...
