Soy Cuba, O Mamute Siberiano

I'll make a film in Cuba that will be my answer and the whole of the Soviet people's to the blockade and the cruel aggression of US imperialism - Mikhail Kalatozov.

Some thirty years on Kalatozov's masterpiece of Soviet Realist agitprop has been rediscovered and restored by a new generation of filmmakers including Scorsese and Coppola who can admire the artistry and technical brilliance of the director, Urusevsky, his unconventional DOP, and the cast of unknowns who manage to rise above a clichéd and ill conceived script to create a rare piece of visual poetry.

The DVD box set includes Ferraz's award winning documentary 'I am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth' in which the Brazilian filmmaker goes to Cuba in search of the surviving cast and crew to recreate a unique time when the revolution was fresh, the Cuban film industry was in its infancy, Che was making deals with Japanese film studios in return for sugar, and a naïve group of Soviet filmmakers came to the tropical island to lend a hand.

Kalatovoz's film bombed in Cuba due to the unaddressed cultural differences that existed between the Slavic filmmakers and their Caribbean counterparts, it was largely banned in the USSR for its depiction of the heady days US corruption, and was ignored in a hostile West, and the true highlight of this collection is when Ferraz reveals the films recent rehabilitation to a genuinely shocked cast and crew.

When the film was needed, it was ignored. When it's an archaeological artefact, it's rescued.