Review: Gorbachev. Heaven

Gorbachev's sad, quiet life is captured in Manksy's documentary

 

Back in the 2019 Hong Kong International Film Festival I watched the documentary Putin's Witnesses by Vitaly Mansky, giving viewers insight into the Russian President and how he functions. Mansky also made it to the city to talk about his film afterwards, feeling free to talk about authoritarianism, though who knew Hong Kong would be quickly sliding into this situation two years later?

Mansky has produced another documentary called Gorbachev. Heaven, about the former leader who ended the Soviet Union, but what has happened to him and Russia since then?

Just before the film started, the director sent a personal video message to viewers in Hong Kong, saying at first he was sad he was unable to come to the city to attend the festival because of the pandemic. 

The dining room only has one person eating

Then Mansky said that he keenly watched the 2019 protests and how the people were trying to protect their freedoms, and so he believed they would be interested in watching Gorbachev. Heaven, seeing how freedom that Gorbachev gave when he declared the end of the Soviet Union, soon dissipated.

Not having seen recent pictures or videos of Gorbachev, it was quite shocking to see the 90-year-old overweight and bloated, and in frail health. He uses a walker to get around, very slowly. Luckily his former aides are there to help him, otherwise he is very much alone. They even helped install an elevator in his home outside Moscow, that the state lent for him to use "temporarily", in other words, until death.

Mansky is off camera the whole time, asking Gorbachev lots of questions, recounting his personal life as well as his political career without using any archival news footage, though there are a few footnotes of people mentioned to help people understand the context of the conversations.

In the mid-1980s Gorbachev introduced perestroika, or democratic reforms, which led to three eastern European countries free from Communist rule (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), and eventually the collapse of the Soviet Union caused by the August 1991 coup that forced Gorbachev to resign, and Boris Yeltsin took power.

Lots of food (and booze) is featured in the film

While Mansky admires Gorbachev, he also doesn't let him get away easily, asking him tough questions about the messy end of the USSR, and the former leader doesn't give straight answers, to which Mansky prods him more, and Gorbachev refuses to reply, saying he's answered them already.

But perhaps it's the long shots of Gorbachev that give viewers a better idea of him these days. Mansky focuses his camera a lot on Gorbachev's face and his hands look so big on the big screen. He likes to eat too -- he's seen snacking, discussing the dinner menu with his chef, dining with friends to mark the New Year. And yes there's vodka and beer too.

Always in the background, though, is Vladimir Putin, usually on television. Just before midnight January 1, 2020, Putin gives a sombre address on TV and he finishes just as the clock strikes 12. "Very precise," remarks Gorbachev, and resumes eating his late night dinner.

Also having a presence in the film is Gorbachev's wife Raisa, who died in 1999 of leukemia. There are portraits of her in his home and office, and he speaks fondly of her, saying, "the meaning of life is gone", though it has been 20 years without her.

Mansky with Gorbachev during filming

He sings a song a few times that he would sing to his wife, which talks of a forest being heaven, and hence the title of the documentary. One scene shows Gorbachev visiting her grave and notes he will be buried with her.

Watching Gorbachev. Heaven is his last will and testament, and it is sad to see the leader who so profoundly changed Russia to be mostly alone, frustrated by his physical limitations and politically shut out, as he is the polar opposite to Putin.

He does speak out, but the media are scared of publishing his opinions. There isn't much he can do about that.

Nevertheless, Manksy's portrait of Gorbachev is an intimate one and good record of his life -- in his words.

Gorbachev. Heaven

Directed by Vitaly Mansky

100 minutes