An illuminating and surprisingly sympathetic delve into the life and career of the Soviet Union’s last President, Meeting Gorbachev features director Werner Herzog at his inquisitive best, although the obvious affection for his subject does question where the documentary ends and the propaganda begins.

Iconic German filmmaker Werner Herzog (Cave of Forgotten Dreams) does not come across as a “happy guy”. Yet when he sits across from former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, you can’t help but notice the beaming smile on his face. For Herzog this is an opportunity to talk to as influential a political figure as they come when it deals with the Europe – and indeed the world – we know today. At one-point Herzog and the films co-director Andre Singer (Night Will Fall) gift Gorbachev a large box of chocolate for his birthday. It almost feels like a hopeless romantic wooing his partner on their first date.

Gorbachev is more than compliant, sharing his experiences growing up in a poor peasant family, to his rise within the Communist Party and eventual position as head of the USSR. Herzog continuously peppers Gorbachev with compliments and questions, greasing the wheels while trying to pry deeper into the how’s and why’s Gorbachev’s various progressive reforms failed the way they did. Quickly it is apparent that this is as much a Herzog love letter as it is a Gorbachev bio-documentary. Perhaps the title of the film should be “When Herzog Met Gorbachev.”

Other interview heads feature from world leaders to diplomats. The crux of the film is the interaction between its two central, strong personalities. A lot of their talk does tend to slide into the casual. Herzog could have certainly pressed more on the bad of Gorbachev’s rule while giving the shine to the good. One telling exchange is when the subject of Chernobyl is raised, bringing out the kind of old Soviet denials typical of Gorbachev’s era.

Of course Herzog relents. His goal was to bring out the man behind the Politburo, the advocate for nuclear disarmament, the widower now facing his own mortality. Herzog achieves this, especially in the films last moments as Gorbachev reflects on the death of his wife and a life now lived in solitude. It is there we see what Herzog sees, a life where the losses were just as big as the gains. Herzog calls it a “tragic life”. How very Russian.