Werner Herzog says there's a "subversive message" to his new documentary Meeting Gorbachev: Talk to your geopolitical enemies.
Herzog interviewed former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev three times in a six-month span to make the new film.
He highlights Gorbachev's leadership during the reunification of Herzog's native Germany as well as the groundbreaking 1986 arms control summit with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
The film makes no mention of current events. Russia's President Vladimir Putin is seen only once, in passing, at the 1999 funeral of Gorbachev's wife Raisa. But the 76-year-old filmmaker says Gorbachev and Reagan's top-level diplomacy was "a good example" for today.
"That's how it can happen. That's how it can be. And in a way, it's a subversive message of the film," Herzog said in an interview.