About the film
In Havana's casinos and on its beaches, rich tourists enjoy themselves while the poor struggle. In the countryside a farmer loses his sugar-cane field. In the city, students begin to fight back, and in the mountains the rebels gather.
Kalatozov and cameraman Sergei Urusevsky tell these four stories with long, floating shots that seem impossible: the camera moves from rooftops to swimming pools and soars over funeral processions.
Forgotten for decades, the film was rediscovered in the 1990s and is now celebrated around the world.
Did you know?
- The poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko co-wrote the script.
- Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola helped present the film to American audiences in the 1990s.
- It was shot by Sergei Urusevsky, who also filmed The Cranes Are Flying.
