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The Survivors
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea | Cuba | 1978 | 130 min.

A wealthy aristocratic family locks itself in its estate after the Revolution, attempting to carry on as if Castro's Cuba had never been born. Gradually they regress to savagery, all the while maintaining the formalities and rituals of their once privileged life. The Survivors is a masterful parody of bourgeois mentality and Gutiérrez Alea's personal homage to filmmaker Luis Buñuel.

New York Premiere, 1995 Human Rights Watch Festival. Distributed by Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematograficos (ICAIC) Calle 23 No. 1155, Vedado, La Habana, Cuba, Tel: (53 7) 3 90 13 Fax: (53 7) 33 30 78.

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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