Mikhail Kalatozov - I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba)

This astonishing and underrated film is blessed with some of the most extraordinary camerawork in film history. Ostensibly this is Communist propaganda, celebrating the progress achieved by the Cuban Revolution and dramatizing four examples of injustice to the common man in pre-Revolutionary Cuba.

Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola plucked this film from obscurity and campaigned to restore it in the early 1990s.

The link that holds the film together is a spoken monologue beginning each sequence with the words ‘Soy Cuba’ (‘I am Cuba’). It's still pushing the boundaries of pure cinema, a stirring and unforgettable experience.



My favourite film David Bailey

A sensouously beautiful movie New York Magazine

Cinema’s singular dream, so often betrayed elsewhere, is to deliver such visions as this 5/6. Number 2 in Critics Choice, Time Out, London

Nothing quite like I Am Cuba has been created either before or since 4/5 The Times, Wendy Ide

Beautiful... Visually dazzling... Miraculous... I am baffled as to why it isn't in everyone's Top 10 lists 5/5 The Guardian

A fascinating artefact of 20th century politics, and an acknowledged masterpiece of technical filmmaking Channel4.com

A memorably eccentric and lyrical hymn to the transformatory powers of cinema British Film Institute

The gliding black and white imagery is magnificent. A masterpiece The Independent, 5/5

A world cinema classic The Guardian Guide, January 2006

Visually staggering... A classic Variety US

Spectacular! visually stunning Stephen Holden, THE NEW YORK TIMES

SPECIFICATIONS:

Running Time 135 mins
PAL Multi Region DVD9
Black & White 4:3
Mono
Spanish with English subtitles
Rated PG
Licensed from ICAIC to Mr Bongo Films / ICAIC/MOSFILM / Special thanks to MK2 Editions