Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Country: Cuba
Award: none
Movement: Post-revolution Cuban Cinema
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. 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. But, since there is no record of the body being exhumed, the bureaucracy turns down the family's wish to rebury the body, because all the official documents show the deceased has already been buried.
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