I AM CUBA ★ Tereb Cinema ★ 27/09

"I AM CUBA" | Mikhail Kalatozov | 1964 | Soviet Union / Cuba

Four vignettes from pre-revolutionary Cuba, accompanied by the poetic narration of “Cuba’s voice” itself: a prostitute in Havana; a peasant who loses his land to an American corporation; a revolutionary student who backs out of an assassination at the last moment; and a mountain farmer who joins the guerrillas only when the bombs reach his yard.

A Soviet-Cuban propaganda film that was almost completely abandoned—too unwieldy for both the Soviets and the Cubans—until Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola discovered it in 1995, leading to its restoration and renewed distribution. Today, it is considered one of the most revolutionary cinematographic achievements in film history: astonishing long takes made before the era of the Steadicam, such as the shot that glides from a party on a rooftop straight into a swimming pool—a shot Paul Thomas Anderson explicitly emulated in Boogie Nights, and without which Scorsese’s own Goodfellas would not look the way it does.

TREV Cinema—like the performances, only films.

Established to provide a platform for diverse artistic voices from around the world, out of a belief in diversity and art for art’s sake.

Doors: 20:00 | Screening: 20:30