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Death of a Bureaucrat
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea | Cuba | 1966 | 87 min.

Gutiérrez Alea's first major film is a black comedy which tells the story of a young man's attempts to disinter and re-bury his uncle, a move that lands him in a nightmare of bureaucratic red tape. Throughout the film, Alea pays homage to a long tradition of film comedy from the silent classics to Billy Wilder and Luis Buñuel. Often misinterpreted, Death of a Bureaucrat is not a critique of socialism, but a critique of bureaucracy, whether it be capitalist or socialist.

Shown at the 1995 Human Rights Watch Festival. Distributed by New Yorker Films, 16 W. 61st Street, 11th floor, New York, NY 10023, Tel: (212) 247-6110 Fax: (212) 307-7855.

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea


(Second from left) The foremost director in Cuba today, Gutiérrez Alea is known for his satirical critiques of government bureaucracy from "inside" the Revolution. Unwavering in his commitment to Cuba's Marxist Revolution, Gutiérrez Alea has been criticized abroad for being apolitical and for not taking on Castro's policies more fully. Gutiérrez Alea states that he agrees "with the Revolution. I'm not going to question it because I'm not interested in doing that. Now, within the Revolution there are things that I know can be improved, that are not right, and I'm interested in revealing these things."

It is the struggle within the Revolution that gives Gutiérrez Alea the inspiration for his films.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL