ionmarandici

This is a pretty good Soviet comedy co-produced by Soviets and some Italians (I don't remember exactly the name of the studio). Italians are portrayed as very active and jolly people, although more interested in pursuing material goals such as finding a hidden treasure in the advent of the Russian Revolution. They don't care about Communist ideals. The Russian character is the only positive character in the movie, a kind of Soviet James Bond. He finally conquers the main female character. Otherwise Soviet women are mostly absent from the movie. Clear signs of propaganda are two: 1) Italian hospitals are presented as being overcrowded so that at some point two patients (a man and a woman) have to share the same bed, 2) there is a lot of chaos in Italy and the Mafia stereotype is reinforced by a short Mafiosi.

Otherwise there aren't any references to the Soviet Communist party as far as I recall. Lots of special effects and stunts, so I suppose the Soviets spent a lot of money on the movie.

This is a good comedy about collective farm workers and a recently returned tank driver from the Far East. It is difficult to understand it if one does not speak Russian and Ukrainian (yes, there is even an Ukrainian folk song in the movie). It so happens that I understand both. The "Zabady vas komar" line is epic. Explicit propaganda is quasi-absent. There are three things I found curious. First, at some point, the kolkhozniki find a German helmet and they comment that the Germans are preparing to attack the Soviet Union. It is curious, because the movie was released in 1939, so presumably the Soviets were expecting the attack (this is also Curtio Malaparte suggests). Second, there is the idea that in case of war, the kolkhozniks can easily change the tractor for a tank. The idea o patriotism and the need to sacrifice for the fatherland is Third, the Georgian guy in the beginning does not appear later in the movie, although he seemed a funny character. I did not understand where exactly was the main character coming from. He says he is returning from the Far East, so it might be from Khalkhin Gol. Overall it is a very good bilingual movie.

Any documentary about Cuba shot in 1987 could have been used either by USA or USSR as a propaganda tool. Although at that time, USSR was on the path of liberalization already. US did not like the idea of having a Communist country in the backyard and trained many of the Cuban refugees, planning the overthrow of the Castro regime. As a consequence, Cuba was the site where the Third World War almost broke out in October 1962. The propaganda criticism is unfair given the fact that Castro and the directors of the prisons are questioned about the prisons, but they obviously deny everything trying to cover the Communist reality. So, I don't think propaganda is the point of the movie. People are escaping Castro's Cuba and that's a hard fact.

As someone who comes from a region which was for five decades under Communism (i.e. Eastern Europe), I see a lot of similarities between the post-revolutionary Cuba and the attempt to create the Homo Sovieticus. Once again I am convinced that Communists are afraid of ideas, despite their claim that ideas don't matter so much in history. The plight of the Soviet and East European dissidents in labor camps is strikingly similar to that of the current Cuban dissidents. The former were escaping to Western Europe, while the last - to USA. China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba are of the same kind. However, sooner or later, they will have to change, same as Gorbachev tried to reform the Soviet Union and failed. Although Castro's Cuba was probably closer to the sultanistic regimes of Eastern Europe, most notably Romania. I think once the Castro family loses its grip on power, the whole regime might collapse. Overall, I consider that this is an excellent movie about the prison system in Cuba, but I admit that I might be biased because of my Eastern European background.