American actor Peter Falk, reprising his role from the first film, and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, all of whom play themselves. Gorbachev had never acted in a film before. His appearance was rare, but not entirely unprecedented for a politician, as Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and New York Mayor John Lindsay had appeared in films. Heinz Rühmann was also cast, and his death in October 1994 made this his last role. Much of the first three weeks of photography went unused in the final edit, due to its influence from Wings of Desire and Wenders' aversion to sequels. Music The Faraway, So Close!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on September 6, 1993, in Europe and Canada, and January 25, 1994, in the United States by EMI Electrola. The twenty-track album has a run time of 76:33. The soundtrack mix of the U2 songs "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" and "The Wanderer" are augmentations of the original versions included on the July 1993 release of Zooropa. Release Faraway, So Close! competed at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1993. In late 1993, it made its U.S. debut at the Telluride Film Festival, where Wim Wenders introduced it personally. It also reached theatres in Germany. A limited release in the U.S. followed in December. In the film's international release, press releases straightforwardly noted "Faraway, So Close marks Mikhail Gorbachev's feature film debut". On its first weekend, it made $55,019 and finished its run grossing $810,455 in North America. Reception On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Faraway, So Close! holds a 58% approval rating based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 5.80/10. The New York Times critic Caryn James described the film as "lyrical and profoundly goofy" and "one of the more intriguing messes on screen". Desson Howe wrote in The Washington Post that while the sequel was not totally unsuccessful, "the narrative journey up to this point has been so frustrating and inconsistent, the conclusion feels like an afterthought". Times Richard Corliss summarized it as "a wondrous mess". The Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas was more positive, assessing it as "just as luminous as" and "a considerably more complex film than Wings of Desire." Roger Ebert contemplated the casting of Nastassja Kinski as a new angel character, writing, "A few years ago Kinski would have been cast as one of the humans. Now her face can reflect