Mikhail Kalatozov

I Am Cuba

I Am Cuba

Both a landmark of radical political cinema and one of the most visually ravishing films ever made, this legendary hymn to revolution shimmers across the screen like a fever dream of rebellion. The result of an extraordinarily ambitious collaboration between the Soviet and Cuban film industries, director Mikhail Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba unfolds in four explosive vignettes that capture Cuban life on the brink of transformation, as crushing economic exploitation and inequality give way to a working-class uprising. Backed by Carlos Fariñas’s stirring score, the dazzling camera work by Sergei Urusevsky—an inspiration for generations of filmmakers to follow—gives flight to the movie’s message of liberation.

Film Info

  • Cuba, Soviet Union
  • 1964
  • 141 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • Spanish
  • Spine #1214

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • “I Am Cuba,” the Siberian Mammoth, a 2004 documentary on the making of the film featuring key participants
  • Interview from 2003 with filmmaker Martin Scorsese
  • New appreciation of the film by cinematographer Bradford Young
  • Trailer
  • Alternate Russian-dubbed soundtrack
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Juan Antonio García Borrero

    New cover by Century

Purchase Options

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • “I Am Cuba,” the Siberian Mammoth, a 2004 documentary on the making of the film featuring key participants
  • Interview from 2003 with filmmaker Martin Scorsese
  • New appreciation of the film by cinematographer Bradford Young
  • Trailer
  • Alternate Russian-dubbed soundtrack
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Juan Antonio García Borrero

    New cover by Century
I Am Cuba
Cast
Raquel Revuelta
Voice of Cuba
Luz María Collazo
Maria/Betty
José Gallardo
Pedro
Sergio Corrieri
Alberto
Mario González Broche
Pablo
María de las Mercedes Díez
Girl chased in the street
Salvador Wood
Mariano
Raúl García
Enrique
Jean Bouise
Jim
Celia Rodríguez
Gloria
Alberto Morgan
Also featuring
Fausto Mirabal
Manuel Mora
Jesús del Monte
Credits
Director
Mikhail Kalatozov
Screenplay
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Screenplay
Enrique Pineda Barnet
Cinematography
Sergei Urusevsky
Camera operator
Alexander Calzatti
Camera operator
B. Brozhovsky
First assistant director
Bella Fridman
Set design
Yevgeny Svidetelev
Artistic consultation and costumes
Rene Portocarrero
Music
Carlos Fariñas
Sound
V. Sharun
Editor
N. Glagoleva

Current

I Am Cuba: The Filmmakers Who Came In from the Cold
I Am Cuba: The Filmmakers Who Came In from the Cold

With its delirious images and audaciously poetic style, Soviet filmmaker Mikhail Kalatozov’s hymn to revolution moves beyond ordinary logic to capture the mysterious beauty of collective utopia.

By Juan Antonio García Borrero