The last president of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Mikhail Gorbachev, died at the Moscow Central Hospital at the age of 91, but his life was and will be told countless times. Portrayed in documentaries and fiction with different appearances, she is nurtured in the filmography that addresses her life and work in one way or another.
Below we review some of the titles, among which the 2018 documentary stands out, Meetings Gorbachevscripted and directed by Werner Herzog in which for an hour and 30 minutes he delves into his life, but which has, as outstanding material, an interview with the protagonist himself.
Meetings Gorbachev
The film was released in 2018 and has a detailed and tedious edition of three interviews that the German director, WernerHerzog, managed with Gorbachev himself for half a year. There is a cultural distance, almost blood, between both figures due to their origins, but also due to mutual attraction. This project had the participation of director André Singer, the British documentary filmmaker.
Gorbachev. Heaven
With a totally different tone from Herzog’s proposal, the Lithuanian director Vitaly Manski managed to interview the former president of the USSR, one of the most influential figures of the last century, in an intimate and more relaxed setting about his own figure and the vision of Russia yesterday and today.
Gorbachev and nuclear peace
the swiss director Leila Conners analyzes the importance of the arrival of Gorbachev for the end of the Cold War, of the arms race that Gorbachev’s predecessors and the US administration had carried out, especially since Reagan’s arrival to the US presidency in 1981. It can be seen on YouTube.
The Reagan Show
Comprised entirely of recordings and news from the Reagan administration itself, this documentary by Sierra Pettengill and Pacho Velez features the first president made for television. “A man whose experience as an orator and talent for public relations made him unique for the modern political scene”, expands the synopsis of the documentary. Gorbachev He has a good share of these audiovisual documents for having been a contemporary of Reagan and together they collaborate with the end of the Cold War between the United States and the USSR.
Putin’s Witnesses
The same director of Gorbachev. Heaven premiered in 2018 a documentary about the days after the arrival of Vladimir Putin to the presidency of Russia. The project has clear interventions on this fact by Mikhail Gorbachev.
Other participations in fiction
in the popular Chernobylthe miniseries of HBOthe actor David Dencik he played the former leader of the USSR in two episodes: “Open Wide, O Earth” and “Please Remain Calm”. For his part, the former president participated in a fiction film by Wim Wenders called In weiter Ferne, so nah! making of himself.
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