This week, filmmaker Luis Alejandro Yero denounced on social media the censorship of his film 'Calls from Moscow' (2023) by Cuban cultural authorities, who excluded it - after it had been admitted by the selection committee, according to what the filmmaker learned unofficially- from the competition of the 44th Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana. Recently, Vladimir Putin's government announced that all public LGTBIQ+ activities were banned in Russia.

'Calls from Moscow' addresses the current socio-political circumstances in Russia and Cuba. But these are esoteric interpretations that concern the macro-historical narrative. On a micro-historical level, this feature film investigates and reveals each tiny space inhabited by its young queer characters exiled in the Russian capital. Dariel Díaz, Daryl Acuña, Eldis Botta, and Juan Carlos Calderón go from the living room to the balcony, to the bathroom, to the elevator of a small apartment. And they all meet again through their cell phones, in that "tiny" environment where they spend a good part of their lives and where they find their freedom. These young people aren’t free in Havana or Moscow but in their telephones. Their recent freedom lies in keeping in touch with their families, expressing themselves as influencers on TikTok, and seeing the "success" stories they have been denied. Yero presents the cell phone as a real and symbolic tool, through which we glimpse the psychology of his characters, and links this with the social importance that this technology and Internet connection has had in Cuba in recent years.

There are plenty of prestigious places where this filmmaker's first feature-length documentary has been screened. Those citizens of the world who wish to see it can do so now thanks to the IV INSTAR Film Festival: December 5, at the Zumzeig Cinecooperativa (Barcelona, Spain); December 8 and 10, at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Mexico City); December 9, at the General San Martin Cultural Center (Buenos Aires), and on December 10, at the Cinemateca Brasileira (Sao Paulo).

There is no doubt that such presentations at this transnational event led to its exclusion from the screens of the Havana Film Festival because in no way can problems of aesthetic quality be adduced in the most recent film by the young Cuban filmmaker, who already won in 2018, with “The Olden Heralds”, the Coral Award for Best Documentary Short Film. And it was not even considered for any of the collateral shows.

Cultural censorship in Cuba has had as many motivations as there are people at risk of losing their institutional privileges in those circles. It is ultimately an exercise of arbitrary power based on the most banal ideology, never on aesthetic criteria. A banality that becomes transparent on a discursive scale through a repetitive bunch of slogans.

The events and characters depicted in 'Calls from Moscow' are not unfamiliar to the "coverage" of the Cuban state media; it is just that in this film, these institutions do not control the narrative. On this occasion, they cannot show in theaters the fragment where writer and activist Luis Dener is seen lashing out against the Cuban government. They cannot "give their opinion" about him and deconstruct his discourse in the middle of the film. Yero does not do this either because, even if he chose these particular sequences in the editing process, they are based on a diegetic reality. His characters consume information through the cell phone, which has already been legitimized, in his eyes, as a space of freedom.

As oppressive as Russian architectural structures are depicted in this documentary feature, diplomatic relations between Havana and Moscow are just as oppressive. The Russian government is one of the main allies of the Cuban authorities, and it is as intolerable to leave the island power in a bad light as it is to the Moscow government, especially in places as traditionally crowded as Havana's movie theaters in December.

In terms of traditional narratives in national documentary filmmaking, emigration finds an uncommon aspect in 'Calls from Moskow': the possibility of return. Emigrants have always been seen as someone who comes and goes, but to whom returning definitely would never be an option. However, in these characters’ journey, that seems to be a possible end for some of them. This could even be considered a "positive" discourse from the perspective of Cuban power if it were not for the fact that the country from which they return is, precisely, a very important political ally -and, of course, these guys would not return out of conviction but out of resignation.