Project Detail

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

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

UK, US, Germany coproduction

Werner Herzog Film GMBH (DE), Spring Films (UK)

Sales Company

A+E Networks (International sales)

235 E 45th St
New York
NY 10017
USA

Submarine Entertainment (US sales)

197 Grand Street, Suite 6W
New York
NY 10013
USA

Page updates

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