From the 1960s until the fall of the Berlin Wall, the most famous musician in the Soviet Bloc was not Elvis Presley, John Lennon, or a Communist Party-backed performer. It’s a U.S.-born, former teen idol from Denver named Dean Reed. In the East, Dean sells out stadiums, preaches Marxism, and inspires a generation.

Along the way, he plots revolution with Che Guevara, talks poetry with Pablo Neruda, and is lauded by Nikita Khrushchev. For the top brass, he’s a propaganda coup; for the communist youth, he’s their Red Elvis—until his body is found floating in a lake in East Berlin, dead at age 47.

Executive Produced by the Wende’s Justinian Jampol, the documentary premieres January 20, 2022, on Curiosity Stream.

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Virtual Film Picks are inspired by the in-person Friday Night Films at the Wende program series. This selection is part of a curated list of weekly movie suggestions that can be watched at home, in conjunction with #WendeOnline.