Reminiscent of the city symphonies of the 1920s and inspired by Eisenstein’s unfinished film ode to Mexico (Que Viva Mexico!), Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba is a loving portrait of Mother Cuba by Mother Russia that juxtaposes the harsh realities of life during the Batista era with the perceived triumphs of the then-recent Castro revolution. Composed in four episodes, the film crisscrosses the country from urban slums to lush countryside, embellishing its predictable messages with Sergei Urusevsky’s striking widescreen black-and-white cinematography and an equally emphatic Afro-Cuban score. The result is an engaging time capsule of the first flush of life after the revolution, which marks the reemergence of a potent new form of radical film practice born of that earlier revolution in Russia.