Meeting Gorbachev
Synopsis
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 project
- 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
- Composer
- 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)
Spring Films
7 Cavendish SquareLondon
W1G 0PE
Sales Company
A+E Networks (International sales)
235 E 45th StNew York
NY 10017
USA
Submarine Entertainment (US sales)
197 Grand Street, Suite 6WNew York
NY 10013
USA
Page updates
This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.
See also
You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.
Cotswolds: Field and Folk
Director: Tea Smart
Year: 2026
Set in the rolling landscapes of the Cotswolds, a documentary exploring the lives, challenges, and traditions of the farmers who shape this iconic countryside. Through intimate conversations with a new generation and those who have worked the land for decades, the film reveals how farming families are navigating change - from shifting economics and environmental pressures to evolving ideas about land stewardship and community. Rooted in place and guided by the voices of those who live it every day, the documentary offers a rare, personal portrait of modern rural Britain and the people working to sustain both land and livelihood for the future.
Ajamu X, Holding the Frame
Director: Joseph a. Adesunloye
Year: 2026
A radical Black Queer photographer and archivist challenges respectability politics through his intimate portraits, reclaiming the right to represent Black desire, pleasure and memory on his own terms.
Every Moon Is Atrocious
Director: Yvonne McDevitt
Year: 2026
Structured as a psychogeographic voyage, the film explores place, memory, and sensation through the inner life of a poet whose sense of self gradually dissolves into cinematic reflection. Departing from conventional documentary forms, EVERY MOON IS ATROCIOUS invites audiences into a layered sensory environment where image, sound, and language operate associatively. At its core lies the poetry of the late Niall McDevitt (1967-2022), whose work forms the conceptual and emotional spine of the film, shaping a trance-like rhythm that mirrors the protagonist’s journey towards death and the unknown. Yvonne McDevitt’s filmmaking resists separating form from feeling. Dreamlike visuals, intense durational shots, and richly layered sound design prioritise emotional resonance over linear narrative. Fragmented imagery and superimpositions draw viewers into a meditative mode, presenting the film as a cinematic drift that charts inner terrains as much as physical ones. Movement through cities and coastlines becomes inseparable from movement through memory, grief, and desire. Official Selection Dublin International Film Festival 2026 - World premiere