A propaganda masterpiece. The director Mikhail Kalatozov and his brilliant cinematographer Sergey Urusevsky created a film with such stunning photography and staging that the film has a vivid atmosphere and feeling for Cuba which is even more amazing considering it was shot in black and white.
I Am Cuba celebrates the fall of Batista and the rise of Castro or more specifically for the Soviet Union, the embracing of a communist state close to one of the biggest democracy's in the world. The people are exploited, the revolutionaries are noble and those rotten capitalists suck.
I Am Cuba for all it's commie propaganda (which apparently wasn't enough for the Soviet government) is really about what a gifted director can do working in the disreputable genre of the propaganda film. Kalatozov is in some ways like Riefenstahl an artist who can bring all of his or her talent and technical expertise to create a special film.
Probably comparing Kalatozov to Riefenstahl is a little unfair, his film is hardly in the same league as Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will. This film is not some Nazi superman epic.
141 minutes
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