La muerte de un burócrata (Death of a Bureaucrat) is a 1966 comedy film by Cuban director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea which pokes fun at the Communist bureaucracy and red tape and how it affects the lives of the common people who have to waste time and overcome hurdles just to get on with their ordinary lives. "It is, as the title suggests, a satire on bureaucracy and red tape, but also on a lot of other sad and mediocre things which we have to put up with at times. However, I have to say that I don’t have much faith in the efficacy of satire as a “driving force of history.” When making the film we thought: we are laughing at the bureaucrats, but then the bureaucrats will come and not only will the film make them laugh, but they will laugh at themselves."— Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Director’s Statement, La Biennale di Venezia Plot The story begins with the death of a model worker, who is buried with his labor card as a badge of honor. However, his widow is told she needs that card to claim the benefits she is entitled to. The story then takes several surreal turns, as the family of the dead man tries to recover the precious card from the grave. As they succeed to do so, the bureaucracy grows into a formidable enemy: Their wish to re-bury the husband is turned down, because all the official documents show he already has been buried... Cast Salvador Wood as Nephew Silvia Planas as Aunt Manuel Estanillo as Bureaucrat Omar Alfonso as Cojimar Tania Alvarado Pedro Pablo Astorga Alicia Bustamante Gaspar De Santelices as Nephew's boss Rafael Díaz Roberto Gacio Carlos Gargallo Elsa Montero as Sabor Rolando de los Reyes Fausto Rodríguez Luis Romay as El Zorro Carlos Ruiz de la Tejera as Psychiatrist Rafael Sosa Richard Suarez as Tarafa Rolando Vidal Laura Zarrabeitia Distribution "The film was wildly popular in Cuban theaters, but, reportedly, because of its bitter mockery of key elements in Cuba’s emerging socialist society, Alea had to have the film smuggled out of Cuba for its release in the US." Awards Special Jury Prize – Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, shared with Jean-Paul Rappeneau's La Vie de château Reception "A satiric comment on contemporary Cuban society, it is also a film deeply attuned to the history of the cinema, with references to and