Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageDeath of a Bureaucrat (1966)
Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
This arresting early work by one of Cuba's foremost film-makers is a black comedy about institutionalised bureaucracy at its most pedantic. After a model factory worker is killed in an accident at work, he's buried with his union card as a mark of eternal solidarity; trouble is, when his wife applies for a pension, she's told she must present the card before she can get any money - and there's a law forbidding exhumation within the first two years of burial. It's a surprising piece to have been made in the Cuba of the mid-'60s, but the laughs come as much from a Buñuelian sense of absurdity as they do from any outright criticism of Castro's regime.Author: TJ
Cast & crew
Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Cast: Salvador Wood, Silvia Planas, Manuel Estanillo, Gaspar de Santelices, Carlos Ruiz de la Tejera full cast
Duration: 85 mins
Top Stories
Ben Drew aka Plan B interview
The singer, rapper and now film director discusses his debut film 'Ill Manors'
Cannes Film Festival 2012: final round-up
Dave Calhoun draws the curtain on the world's greatest film festival
Ridley Scott interview
Director Ridley Scott tells Cath Clarke why he's making a science fiction comeback
What do you think?
Post your review now