Item #: 6591DVD Category: RUSSIAN Format: DVD MPAA Rating: G

Woolly Rating: 6/10 (101 votes)

MEMBER COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO

jd	Mar 31, 2003 @ 18:8:43

<[:-} “ya kuba”
this is a little cynical exploitation mixed with piles of melodrama so purple it had to be at least partially tongue in cheek. the rigid, witless demands of the bureaucrats clashed with very artistic temperaments to produce bizarre results. the camera work and lighting are extremely arty and sometimes quite good. spanish and english dialogue are retained but almost simultaneously overdubbed in russian and subtitled in english, to dizzying effect. “soy cuba.” “ya kuba.” “i am cuba.” imagine it with long sentences. the beautiful luz maria collazo plays a prostitute so reluctant that she never smiles, and tears up frequently. she does a hilarious jazz dance interpreting her torment that drives the debauched capitalist nightclub predators and other hos to leering ferocity, like brueghel’s grotesques taunting christ as he carries the cross. there’s endless crap about the crucifix she wears. a russian with terrible english that looks a lot like me, all nose and no chin, plays the relatively liberal american that ruins her life by insisting on going back to her place. he has to skirt the world’s largest mud puddle there and back, beset by hordes of urchins begging for “one coin.” the artificial slum is unbelievable. before he leaves, her unsuspecting fruit cart peddler / revolutionary literature disseminator boy friend drops in on them. i think the “american” was chosen for his looks, trying to play to the ancient, virulent anti-semitism that persisted in russia through the soviet era and on to today. there were plenty of real american voices in the nightclub scene. afterwards, there’s a lot of crap about “enrique,” a flamboyant, narcissistic college “revolutionary.” after the film moves out to the oriente province with the fidelistas it gets pretty long, and the melodrama becomes almost unbearably ridiculous. it at least 30 minutes too long, but this movie is a cruel but amusing trip. highly recommended.

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