| death of a bureaucrat
Thursday 11th December
DEATH OF A BUREAUCRAT
( Tomas Gutierrez Alea, Cuba, 1966, 87 mins)
When a well-loved artist is accidentally killed by the machine he created to mass-produce busts of the nineteenth-century revolutionary hero Jose Marti, his family decides he should be buried gripping his union work permit in a symbol of his dedication to Castro's cause. But his widow needs his work card to collect her pension, and so begins her nephew's endless quest to retrieve it through a quagmire of bureaucratic red tape, thwarted at every turn by myopic men in suits and their forms to fill out. A lost rubber stamp can be mightier than the sword.
With a mixture of deft slapstick and satire, Alea's lively and sharp film pays homage to a long tradition of film comedy from the silent classics to Billy Wilder and Luis Bunuel. Often misinterpreted, Death of a Bureaucrat is not a critique of socialism, but a critique of bureaucracy, whether it be capitalist or socialist. How this scathing critique all got past the Cuban government is a mystery, but you don't have to be a refugee from a communist country to appreciate it. The film will ring true for anyone who has ever had to deal with social security administration, the inland revenue, the cones hotline or any big bureaucracy more concerned with procedure than people.
After the film there is a free buffet at KK McCool's opposite the venue, to say thanks for all your continued support and an excuse for us to all get together and socialise. Please come and join us around 9pm, even if you can't make it to the film.
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