Gorbachev. Heaven

synopsis

For some, the destructor of the Soviet empire, betrayer of his own country, iconoclast. For many a peacemaker, bringer of faith, dynamic figure of the global world. A portrait of the spiritual father of perestroika and glasnost, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, presents an intimate struggle between two personalities: an aging, though still vital legend of Russian politics and a critical creator, interrogator and philosopher. Both offer their own versions of understanding the key moments of the socialist era’s end in Russia. Vitaly Mansky composes a mosaic made up of contemplative moments and debates intertwined with singing and poetry. A documentary epitaph of a feeble-bodied statesman put in contrast with the chaos of Putin’s contemporary Russia. A requiem for an echoing spring of the heavenly music of one’s childhood.

„I wished to see a man behind the cold marble, who decided to make the world a better place to live. And that’s why, for a long time, we didn’t give up hopes of convincing this life-beaten, almost 90-year-old man to let us into his world of desolation, frustrations, but also a joy of freedom!” (Vitaly Mansky)

biography

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