Tchapaev à La Havane : le cinéma révolutionnaire cubain et la question du réalisme socialiste

Abstract

This paper seeks to assess the influence of realist socialist aesthetics on Cuban revolutionary cinema. After briefly retracing the emergence and flowering of socialist realism in the Soviet Union, as well as the trajectory of Cuban Communist Party before and after the Revolution, this study focuses on the position of ICAIC’s (official film institute) filmmakers and managers with regards to this exogenous aesthetic doctrine, and seeks to determine whether socialist realism ever gained the status of official standard in Cuba. This reflection is developed connecting cinema and revolutionary cultural politics, with its invariants and evolutions, and keeping in mind the broader context of changing political guidelines of the Castro regime as well as the role of Communists in the revolutionary process.