Meeting Gorbachev

Synopsis

Rising from a farm boy to become President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev brought about changes that helped end the Cold War, toppled the USSR, enabled the reunification of Germany and transformed the world forever.
A new feature length documentary MEETING GORBACHEV by legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog and Emmy Award winning Director, André Singer.
“I like this film. It’s realistic and it’s dramatic - like life itself” Mikhail Gorbachev

In terms of realpolitik, these meetings between Mikhail Gorbachev and Werner Herzog might well be termed a summit. And the meetings between the filmmaker and the former leader of the Soviet Union were indeed prepared and executed like summit meetings. Werner Herzog, André Singer and their crew visited the initiator of glasnost and perestroika in his absolute seclusion near Moscow three times over a period of six months.
It’s the first time that Herzog focuses so directly on a politician, though he makes no bones about his admiration for the now 87-year-old statesman and Nobel Peace Prize winner. By the same token, it’s a first for Mikhail Gorbachev, too, to let himself be questioned by an artist who avowedly is looking for a sound that’s different from what a professional journalist wants to hear and provoke. In his latest documentary, Herzog follows significant stations of Gorbachev’s political and personal career on a new quest for ecstatic moments behind factual truths. (DOK Leipzig, Ralph Eue)

Festivals/awards

2018
u.a. TIFF Toronto, DOK Leipzig, Viennale, IDFA Amsterdam
2019
CPH:DOX Copenhagen

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