I Am Cuba
I Am Cuba
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2h 21m
Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov • 1964 • Cuba, Soviet Union
Starring Raquel Revuelta, Luz María Collazo, José Gallardo
Both a landmark of radical political cinema and one of the most visually ravishing films ever made, this legendary hymn to revolution shimmers across the screen like a fever dream of rebellion. The result of an extraordinarily ambitious collaboration between the Soviet and Cuban film industries, director Mikhail Kalatozov’s I AM CUBA unfolds in four explosive vignettes that capture Cuban life on the brink of transformation, as crushing economic exploitation and inequality give way to a working-class uprising. Backed by Carlos Fariñas’s stirring score, the dazzling camera work by Sergei Urusevsky—an inspiration for generations of filmmakers to follow—gives flight to the movie’s message of liberation.
Up Next in I Am Cuba
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I AM CUBA Russian Dubbed Version
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I Am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth
The making of I AM CUBA was as epic in scope as the film itself. This 2004 documentary, directed by Vicente Ferraz, is a thorough exploration of that process, from the arrival of Soviet filmmakers Mikhail Kalatozov and Sergei Urusevsky in Havana to the movie’s years-long production—and tepid rece...
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Bradford Young on I AM CUBA
Cinematographer Bradford Young pays homage to the innovative aesthetics of I AM CUBA, and the lessons to be learned from its depiction of the revolutionary spirit, in this interview recorded in 2023.
