I Am Cuba

This 1964 Russian-Cuban co-production is a masterpiece. Not necessarily for its theme or story, but all the more for its lyrical imagery. Director Michail Kalatozov (1903-1973) is more widely known for his (1957), the most prominent expression of the slacking of cultural censorship in late-1950s Soviet Union, and shows that its makers took advantage of this new artistic freedom. The film tells four stories from the buildup to Cuba's violent revolution in 1959. In Havana, Maria faces shame when a man who fancies her discovers how she makes a living. Pedro, an aging farmer, is summarily told that his land has been sold to a multinational. A student watches as his friends get shot by police when they try to distribute a pro-Castro leaflet. And a farmer named Mariano joins the guerrillas in their fight when his family is threatened. The film was a nightmare for the Soviet censors, since depraved capitalism gets the upper hand over revolutionary heroism. On top of that, it features jazz and rock 'n' roll – anti-Soviet music to say the least. was shelved, virtually unseen, until the American director Martin Scorsese rediscovered the film in 1992.