Meeting Gorbachev
Synopsis
Prolific director Werner Herzog’s candid conversations with the former Soviet head of state form the backbone of this illuminating documentary, co-directed by André Singer, on one of the 20th century’s most defining politicians.
Across a six-month period, Werner Herzog conducted three interviews with Mikhail Gorbachev that are the foundation for this riveting film. Now 87, Gorbachev speaks like a man with nothing to lose. He is respected more outside Russia than inside, where he's blamed for the Soviet Union's breakup in 1991. He laments that "we didn't finish the job of democracy in Russia." And he worries that others took the wrong lessons from perestroika: "Americans think they won the Cold War and this went to their head. What victory?"
Herzog applies his own unique perspective and narration to a deep archive of footage, often with his eye oriented toward the absurd. Other key eyewitnesses to this history from the US, Germany, Hungary, and Poland are also interviewed, building a personal and revealing picture of Gorbachev as a statesman and as a human.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - TIFF Docs
Details
- Year
- 2018
- Type of film
- Features
- Running Time
- 90 mins
- Director
- Werner Herzog, André Singer
- Producer
- Svetlana Palmer, Lucki Stipetic
- Executive Producer
- Richard Melman, Molly Thompson, Eli Lehrer
- Editor
- Michael Ellis
- Screenwriter
- Werner Herzog, André Singer
- Director of Photography
- Richard Blanshar, Yuri Barak
- Sound
- Vladimir Rizun, Vasily Amochkin, Simon Bishop, Alexander Kuckuck
- Music
- Nicholas Singer
- Principal Cast
- Mikhail Gorbachev, Miklós Németh, George P. Shultz, James A. Baker III, Lech Walesa, Horst Teltschik
Genre
Production status
Complete
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Last updated 18th March 2019
