For a dash back into the realm of communist block propaganda tinged with a snobby capitalist ascetic, check out the film I am Cuba [Soy Cuba]. If you grew up in the communist block, it’s likely you’ve never heard of this film. Actually, if you grew up in the capitalist block, it’s also likely you’ve never heard of it, that is unless you’re a film freak. It only became well known after the fall of the Soviet Union, when it was discovered by western filmmakers in the newly opened Soviet archives.
It was made by a Russian team with a more or less unlimited budget. After its release in 1964, it was condemned by the Cuban and Soviet governments for basically not being communist enough. This allowed it to find an honorary place in some dusty Soviet archive where it sat for around 30 years.
The following brief synopsis shouldn’t spoil any of the movie for you. The film is narrated by Cuba herself in a poetic style, then goes on four vignettes displaying different forms of oppression during the pre-revolutionary Batista era. The first story starts at a Havana party full of Americans. The Cubans are treated as their toys with the Cuban men being entertainers and the Cuban women all being prostitutes. This vignette contains a powerful scene where an American gets lost in a Cuban slum. The next scene follows the injustices brought on a peasant and his family working in the sugar cane fields. After this we get to follow a student revolutionary and his fellow classmate’s struggles against the Batista regime. Finally, the film takes us out into the hills where the fighting between the Castro guerillas and the Bastista armed forces is taking place. Here we get to follow a peasant man and his family as they get caught up in the fighting.
If you come upon a film student, they probably have heard of I am Cuba and will then proceed to gush on about its artistic genius, marvelous long shots, and beautiful imagery (They might even use the term mise en scéne). Like most film students, they are most likely repeating what they heard in class or read in some book, but watching the film even the layman can’t help but notice some of the camera acrobatics. This becomes very clear from the beginning when the audience is taken to a decadent party in the Batista era full of Western tourists treating the country as their play thing. According to film aficionados, this is the most famous scene and these film geeks really get gushing when the camera splashes into the swimming pool to join the partiers, then emerges from the pool and continues on without a single cut. I’ll admit, it’s pretty impressive, but if you’re used to the tricks of modern cinema where whole worlds are created from CG, then you might not get as excited. Equally, if not more impressive is a scene later in the movie that follows the funeral procession of a fallen student. The camera goes up the side of the building to what looks like the third or fourth floor, through a window into a cigar rolling factory, then out another window where it dangles above the crowd.
Overall, I am Cuba is a good trip down communist nostalgia lane, but with an artistic style that many can appreciate today. It might even bring out the hidden quasi-socialist film snob buff in you. If anything, the fact that it’s shot on location in early 1960s Cuba is enough to make it historically relevant. The next step after watching the film would be to visit Cuba today for a real dose of communist nostalgia.
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