Soy Cuba, by Mikhail Kalatozov

Rescued from oblivion 30 years after it was released, Soy Cuba is a milestone in the cultural collaboration of the early sixties between Cuba and the Soviet Union. The four stories that make up this feature directed by the then veteran Mikhail Kalatozov, maker of the Cannes award-winning Letyat zhuravli (The Cranes are Flying, 1957), relate the vicissitudes of the island from decadent US domination to the final triumph of Castro’s revolution. Despite being a propaganda film, the beauty of the images and the music still manages to override the political reading. The Russian director’s work centres on capturing the exuberant Caribbean island with his bold camera use that was much imitated when the film came to attention in the nineties, due also to its use of wide-angle lenses and lighting.

 

Soy Cuba,Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964, 35 mm, 141 min.