GORBACHEV. HEAVEN

By Vitaly MANSKY

ALPE ADRIA CINEMA - TRIESTE FILM FESTIVAL - as FEST

Historical - Completed 2020

The 90-year old Gorbachev currently lives in a modest house outside Moscow, awaiting the moment when he will be called to join the list of the 20th century’s most consequential figures. History will judge Gorbachev, but Gorbachev presents his own, final testimony.

Festivals
& Awards

IDFA 2020
Award for Best Directing in the Feature-Length Competition
Tallinn Black Nights IFF 2020
Hong Kong IFF 2021
It's All True 2021
Sheffield Doc/Fest 2021
    • Year of production
    • 2020
    • Genres
    • Historical, Documentary, Biography
    • Countries
    • LATVIA, CZECH REPUBLIC
    • Languages
    • RUSSIAN
    • Duration
    • 100 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Vitaly MANSKY
    • Producer(s)
    • Natalia MANSKAIA (VERTOV)
    • Synopsis
    • Gorbachev. Heaven is a documentary film about 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. He tore down the Berlin Wall. But at the same time, under his rule, the Chernobyl nuclear facility exploded and its destruction was concealed. Citizens demanding independence in the Baltic states died. Soldiers wielding shovels brutally suppressed protesters in Tbilisi. And Soviet tanks menaced, and killed, peaceful demonstrators in Baku. 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.