Meet­ing Gorbachev

It was per­haps only a mat­ter of time before Wern­er Her­zog made a film about Mikhail Gor­bachev. From fic­tion­al tri­umphs such as 1972’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God and 1982’s Fitz­car­ral­do, to star­tling doc­u­men­taries such as 2005’s Griz­zly Man, the Ger­man director’s work often focus­es on sin­gle-mind­ed men who take on seem­ing­ly impos­si­ble, thank­less tasks in the face of insur­mount­able odds.

Gorbachev’s attempt to push through democ­ra­cy in the Com­mu­nist Sovi­et Union while serv­ing as its final leader is sure­ly with­in the Her­zo­gian remit, while he was also award­ed the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in end­ing the Cold War.

For Meet­ing Gor­bachev, Her­zog shares his direct­ing cred­it with Andre Singer who has served as pro­duc­er or exec­u­tive pro­duc­er for Her­zog 14 times since 1992. Yet Her­zog has writ­ten and nar­rat­ed the film him­self and is shown on screen as Gorbachev’s inter­view­er. The bulk of the film com­pris­es choice cuts from three sit-down ses­sions between the two, with Her­zog also pro­vid­ing spo­ken con­text with a pot­ted his­to­ry of Gorbachev’s upbring­ing in rur­al Stavropol and sub­se­quent rise with­in the Com­mu­nist Par­ty over archive stills and news footage.

In addi­tion, Her­zog speaks to sev­er­al key play­ers from Gorbachev’s time in pow­er. Ex-Hun­gar­i­an prime min­is­ter Mik­lós Németh and for­mer Ger­man Chan­cel­lor Hel­mut Kohl’s advi­sor, Horst Teltschik, are enlight­en­ing for a neigh­bour­ing Euro­pean per­spec­tive on Gorbachev’s work, while the then-US Sec­re­tary of State George Shultz dis­cuss­es how Gor­bachev and Amer­i­can pres­i­dent Ronald Rea­gan worked togeth­er to thaw the icy US-Sovi­et relationship.

Gor­bachev, through ush­er­ing in per­e­stroi­ka (reform of the polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic sys­tem) and glas­nost (increased trans­paren­cy) while in pow­er, is one of the most impor­tant polit­i­cal fig­ures of the late 20^th cen­tu­ry and a par­tic­u­lar hero to Her­zog – and for good rea­son. The dis­so­lu­tion of the Sovi­et Union paved the way for Ger­man reuni­fi­ca­tion, which in turn meant all Ger­mans could enjoy their first, real sus­tained free­dom since before World War Two. Sovi­et Bloc coun­tries across East­ern Europe could final­ly look to a brighter future.

Herzog’s inter­est in and love for Gor­bachev is under­stand­able, and the momen­tous account of polit­i­cal his­to­ry told here is a fas­ci­nat­ing and sig­nif­i­cant one, but the tone does veer too far towards hagiog­ra­phy. There is very lit­tle crit­i­cal ques­tion­ing of the vet­er­an Russ­ian states­man and his poli­cies, while the film also lacks any­thing tru­ly rev­e­la­to­ry. You feel for Gor­bachev when dis­cussing the ear­ly death of his wife Raisa and applaud him for his efforts in push­ing for nuclear dis­ar­ma­ment. But you also yearn for infor­ma­tion you can’t read with­in five min­utes of pok­ing around online.

The wish to see more of the late Mar­garet Thatch­er is a strange one, but it would have been inter­est­ing to see a British Prime Min­is­ter who had such an oppo­si­tion­al polit­i­cal ide­ol­o­gy to Gor­bachev giv­en more screen time (she is shown and heard from fleet­ing­ly). An impor­tant and inter­est­ing doc­u­men­tary about tumul­tuous times, then, but one that slight­ly suf­fers for being a touch too dry and over-friend­ly towards its subject.