I Am Cuba

1964 2h 21m ES

🙌

7.9

BANGER

★7.9TMDB · 262

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A study in contrasts set in and around Havana that explores Cuba's 1959 revolution: a young woman's fascination with the excess of an American-owned casino leads to her downfall in the eyes of her street vendor boyfriend; a tenant farmer revolts the only way he knows how, attacking the land he works; university students gain first-hand knowledge of political upheaval; and, in the hills outside the city, the members of a poor peasant family are patriotically swept up into the burgeoning revolt.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Sergio Corrieri
Alberto
Salvador Wood
Mariano
José Gallardo
Pedro
Raúl García
Enrique
Luz María Collazo
Maria / Betty
Jean Bouise
Jim
Alberto Morgan
Ángel
Fausto Mirabal

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Mikhail Kalatozov
Writers: Enrique Pineda Barnet, Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Languages: English, Russian, Spanish
Countries: Cuba, Soviet Union

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

62 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Russian, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Cuba, Soviet Union.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, shot by Sergei Urusevsky. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Carlos Fariñas. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Sergio Corrieri and Salvador Wood and José Gallardo carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0058604 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Mikhail Kalatozov directs. Sergei Urusevsky behind the camera. Carlos Fariñas scores. Produced in Cuba, Soviet Union. Dialogue in English, Russian, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
262 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Russian, Spanish.
4International production across 2 countries: Cuba, Soviet Union.
5Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, shot by Sergei Urusevsky. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Carlos Fariñas. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Sergio Corrieri and Salvador Wood and José Gallardo carry the top of the cast.
8IMDB entry: tt0058604 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 13 themes, including "rebellion", "police", "cuba", "propaganda".
10Released under 27 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Sergei Urusevsky
Original score: Carlos Fariñas
Production design: Yevgeni Svidetelev
Makeup / hair: Luz M. Cáceres
Runtime: 141 min · 2h 21m
Status: Released
Budget: $600,000
Original language: ES
IMDB: I Am Cuba (1964)

Also by

Mikhail Kalatozov

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2026-06-04
★ 7/10
If you are ever going to watch a film that shows just how the seeds of revolution can germinate, then this is probably it. Using four separate scenarios, we follow the iniquities of a society that is crying out for change - but just not neccessarily coherently. It's that lack of cohesion that has hitherto allowed the Batista government to cling to power, but might we be about to see the joining up of those oppressed in both the countryside and the city? We start with "Pedro" (José Gallardo), a subsistence farmer walking through his fields praying for his sugar canes to grow tall and true so he can provide for his family. Nature duly obliges only for his landlord to sell the farm from under him, leaving him homeless and distraught. Next, we move to the city and the problems are barely less urgent as we witness the brutality of the regime at first hand. Perhaps handing out leaflets supporting the allegedly deceased Fidel Castro isnt the best idea? Back out in the countryside, the government is aware of the bubbling sentiment against it so resorts to indiscriminate bombings and then finally we find that even the most pacifist of people in this deeply Catholic nation are turning into guerillas - of one form or another. It's Soviet produced and there is occasionally a slight communist propagandist element written into a script that is distinctly anti-Western, but those elements are more subtly tangential to a series of very human stories that touch on the importance of basic freedoms, dignities and aspirations, and of the impact on society when they are denied. This is an island where the wealth sits in all too few hands, often foreign, and where the local population are disenfranchised as much by enough of their fellow citizens with their snouts in the trough as they are by those determined to retain power. The photography from the agrarian settings captures uncomfortably the levels of despair faced by the working families eking out a living from their toil; that in Havana illustrates effectively the counter-balance of many living in comparative luxury - all while the pistole and the water cannon are used to suppress any challenges to the establishment. It's political, this, but not in as partisan fashion as you might expect. You don't need to be red or blue to appreciate the profound unfairness of a system that so obviously exploits the vulnerable by denying them education, hope, opportunity or by keeping folk in a lifestyle that borders on the indentured. Some of the dialogue epitomises pathetic in the literal sense of the word and this is a moving and ultimately quite empowering film to observe.

Production companies