How a Cold War propaganda relic became a masterclass in impossible cinematography
In short: Forgotten for decades, the 1964 Soviet-Cuban collaboration I Am Cuba was once dismissed as naive agitprop. Today, it is hailed as a technical miracle. With its gravity-defying tracking shots and infrared-enhanced monochrome, this once-buried film now stands as a landmark of visual storytelling, rediscovered by Hollywood icons like Martin Scorsese.
Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, I Am Cuba was born from a 1963 partnership between the Soviet Union and the Cuban government. Following the 1959 Revolution, the USSR sought to solidify its alliance with Fidel Castro’s regime through cinema. The film presents four vignettes depicting the transition from the Batista dictatorship to the revolutionary uprising, narrated by a personified 'Voice of Cuba.' Despite the involvement of Palme d'Or-winning cinematographers, the film failed upon release. Audiences in Havana found it stereotypical, while Soviet officials deemed it insufficiently revolutionary.
The film’s visual language remains its most enduring legacy. Cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky utilized infrared film from the Soviet military to create high-contrast, dreamlike landscapes where sugar cane appears stark white against dark, moody skies. Technical ingenuity was pushed to extremes: crews used custom submarine periscope cleaners to keep lenses dry during aquatic shots and employed complex cable devices to execute seamless, multi-story tracking shots that move from street-level processions into factory windows. One sequence famously required the coordination of over 1,000 soldiers.
For nearly thirty years, the film remained largely unknown in the West due to the Cold War embargo. Its rediscovery began in the early 1990s when filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola championed its restoration. After a 1992 screening at the Telluride Film Festival, Milestone Films acquired the rights, eventually leading to modern 4K restorations. While critics like Roger Ebert noted its dated political themes, the film’s formal audacity has earned it universal acclaim, with contemporary directors like Gaspar Noé ranking it among the greatest films ever made.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: I Am Cuba
- Also: Wikidata — I am Cuba, the Siberian mammoth · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — I Am Cuba · CC0
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