Calls from Moscow - Screening + Q&A
Calls from Moscow - Screening + Q&A
Originaltitel: Llamadas desde Moscú
65 Min. | CU, DE, NO | 2023
Sprache: OmeU | Originalsprache: Spanish, Russian, English
Regie: Luis Alejandro Yero
Besetzung: Juan Carlos Calderón, Eldis Botta, Daryl Acuña, Dariel Díaz, Luis Alejandro Yero
// Screening in Anwesenheit des Produzenten //
Days before the invasion of Ukraine is announced, four young Cubans visit a Moscow apartment for a 24-hour stay. In their phone calls, the present and future coexist: their stories as queer and undocumented immigrants, and the exchanges with the film’s director after the outbreak of the war.
They were chasing the promise of the “Russian dream”. Without the need for visas, every year more than 25,000 Cubans landed as unwary tourists at Moscow or St. Petersburg airports. Some arrive to buy cheap and scarce goods, which they then resell at higher prices in Cuba. Others, with the illusion that once on land, they can take a train to Madrid. Many of them travel with equally illusory promises of work contracts, buoyed by optimism with the thought of landing in the former Soviet empire.
None of them could imagine that they were departing for a country where the cultural, climatic, and linguistic distance —to say nothing of the unfavourable immigration laws— make integration extremely difficult. Further, the deeply patriarchal culture and homophobic laws are an added obstacle for queer people. The worst was the discovery of an intricate shield —a neo-Iron Curtain– that encases the European borders.
The Cuban government has issued a ban on the public screening of Calls from Moscow at any cinema and on TV in the country. This censorship began with the exclusion of the movie from the Havana International Film Festival in December 2023, which was a politically motivated decision.
OmU = Originalversion mit Untertiteln
OV = Originalversion ohne Untertitel
OmeU = Originalversion mit englischen Untertiteln
DF = deutschsprachige Fassung