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I am Cuba was filmed as Soviet propaganda during the Cold War but only became successful when it was shown to audiences in the
United States during the
1990s.
I am Cuba (Spanish: Soy Cuba; Russian: Ya Kuba/Я Куба) is a Cuban/Soviet film produced in 1964 by director Mikheil Kalatozishvili. Although it was produced during the Cold War (arguably as a Soviet propaganda film), the movie was not received well by either the Russian or Cuban public and was almost completely forgotten until it was re-discovered by American filmmakers 30 years later. The movie's acrobatic long shots and rather poetic plot prompted Hollywood directors like Martin Scorcese to begin a small campaign to restore the movie to the screens during the early 1990s.
History
Shortly after the Cuban revolution overthrew Fulgencio Batista, the socialist Fidel government, which was isolated by the United States, turned to the USSR for film partnerships. The Soviet government, interested in promoting international socialism, agreed to finance a film about the Cuban revolution.
The director was given considerable freedom to complete the work, and was given much help from both the USSR and Cuban governments. They made use of innovative filming techniques; including coating a watertight camera's lens with a special submarine periscope cleaner, so the camera could be submerged and lifted out of the water without any drops on the lens or film. At one point, more than a thousand Cuban soldiers were moved to a remote location to shoot one scene — this despite the then-ongoing Cuban missile crisis.
Even though it had such great support, the movie was given a cold reaction by audiences. In Havana it was criticized for showing a rather stereotyped view of Cubans, while in Moscow it was considered naive and was not revolutionary enough and was even criticised for flattering the life of the bourgeois pre-Fidel class. Also, upon its original release, the movie never reached Western countries largely due to it being a Communist production.
When the USSR collapsed in the early 90's "Ya kuba" was virtually unknown. It was rediscovered because of the work of a movie archeologist and slowly some copies reached Los Angeles. In 1994 a friend invited Martin Scorcese to a private screening which left Scorsese so amazed by the film that he decided to try to release it to US screens. Since then it has seen growing interest among alternative video stores.
Technical Feats
What most amazes cinephile audiences about this movie are the long shots (cf. the much later Russian Ark). The first scene starts in what seems to be the top of a building where a beauty contest is going on. The camera, using a wide angle lens, moves among the contestants, goes out of the building, moves downwards for two stories into club then circles around the bartenders. It then enters the pool and actually goes underwater, where the shot ends. In fact, the original scene went on for longer: the camera actually left the water (special submarine lenses cleaned off water droplets), but Kalatozishvili decided to cut this scene from the final movie.
In another scene, the camera follows a coffin between a crowded street. Then it stops and slowly moves upwards for at least four stories until it is filming the coffin from above a building. Without stopping it then starts panning sideways and enters through a window into a cigar factory, then goes straight towards a window where the cigar workers are watching the coffin. The camera finally passes through the window and, still following the court, appears to float over the street between the buildings!
Politics
Contrary to what many might expect, the movie is not too heavy on socialist propaganda. The stories are about the universal struggle of the oppressed against an oppressor, and are so naive as to appear almost as a collection of poetic socialist fairy tales. But they do not make reference to any particular political system. With small changes, the same plots could fit as easily into the context of the 18th century French Revolution as that of a 19th century colonial independence war.
All characters are archetypically simple and plain, either good or evil. Some American viewers felt offended by the movie's stereotyped American characters. They appear in almost every scene, in such roles as a wealthy client of a prostitute, drunken mariners chasing after women, or the head of a huge company buying a sugar cane farm. On the other hand, for someone used to seeing American movies from the same time period, in which Russians were often portrayed as evil spies, I Am Cuba is surprising with its empathic portrayal of Russians.
Story
The movie consists of four distinct short stories about the suffering of the Cuban people and their reactions, varying from passive amazement in the first, to a guerrilla march in the last. Between the stories, a female narrator (credited 'The Voice Of Cuba') says such things as "I am Cuba, the Cuba of the casinos, but also of the people".
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