Few surviving 20th-century political figures are so fraught with symbolism as former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Aestheticized in late and post-Soviet culture and the Western Cold War imaginary, ...

Geopolitics has never been high on Werner Herzog’s list of concerns, at least in his documentaries. Even when he glances toward current events (“Lessons of Darkness,” “Into the Abyss”), the thrust ...