Gorbachev. Heaven (2020)

• Year: 2020
• Released: 15 Oct 2021
• Country: Latvia, Czech Republic
• Adwords: 1 win & 6 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13400440/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gorbachev_heaven
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Russian
• MPA Rating: N/A
• Genre: Documentary
• Runtime: 100 min
• Writer: Vitaliy Manskiy
• Director: Vitaliy Manskiy
• Cast: Mikhail Gorbachev, Chulpan Khamatova, Evgeniy Mironov
• Keywords:

	6.9/10
	83% – Critics

Gorbachev. Heaven Storyline

Changes that reverberated throughout the world wrought by one man. A film summing-up the life of a man who changed the world in the 20th century. Gorbachev’s short time in power was marked by the collapse of this empire. He was the architect of Glasnost and Perestroika, policies that gave the citizens of the Soviet Union – what Ronald Reagan called “the Evil Empire” – a chance to be free. The Soviet empire collapsed under him – and he is condemned by his own people. With this burden of the past, this lonely old man is living the last days of his life in an empty house in the suburbs near Moscow.

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Gorbachev. Heaven Movie Reviews

Deeply touching portrait of a great man’s end of life

This is one of the most beautiful examinations of once the most powerful man in the world at the end of his life. Beauty in silence, the filmmakers let daily events shine light on President Gorbachev in this ‘interview with a crank’ as he describes it himself.

We enter Gorbachev’s home, hear him recite childhood poems, listen to him sing of memories of his mother, clearly miss his beloved wife Raisa (the better of them in the relationship he allows), and watch as he struggles with mobility issues at the end of his life.

Illuminating, touching, poignant, revelatory, and somehow pitiful, it’s a remarkable documentary. It is a true treasure.

Like a poem…

A documentary masterpiece, a 1h and 40m long Yesenin poem. A moving portrait of a man who changed the course of history. A history which by his own words is a restless lady. A man who says a lot by saying nothing at all. A man so lucid at 90 to know his time is yet to come.

Nobody writes to the Secretary

It’s common for a documentary to be labelled as an intimate portrait; but rarely is it true. But ‘Gorbachev. Heaven’ is unquestionably intimate, following the last leader of the Soviet Union shortly before his recent death. The film’s subject was ninety years old, far from senile but undoubtedly frail, and his physical weakness is no way hidden. Indeed, there’s a tragic feeling to the story. Gorbachev was living in grace-and-favour accomodation when filming started (he later moved to a hospital, although he remained well enough to venture out on occasion), a grand house that nonetheless appears not to have been decorated in 30 years. The setting seems to emphasise his position in modern Russian society as a forgotten man. He’s an interesting interviewee, in part because he is not accomodating to his interviewer or audience. Instead, he is thoughtful but defensive, and shows a surprising rigidity of thought: the man who dared to try to change the U. S. S. R. still seems grounded in the intellectual framings of his youth, proud of the fact he didn’t commit mass murder to prop up the state, but still regretful of the fact that the state failed; and unwilling to speak directly of Putin, his eventual successor. For all his significance, it’s easy to see why he fell into irrelevence long even when he remained physically vigourous. Nonetheless, the world owes him its thanks; dealt a losing hand, he played it the best way he could have done.