Death of a Bureaucrat

The Cuban Death of A Bureaucrat involves the demise of an inventor, who had developed a machine to mass-produce statuettes of Cuban hero Jose Martin. Unfortunately, the inventor is buried with his union card in his pocket. Unable to collect any pension money without that card, the widow attempts to exhume the body. Her hands tied by red tape, the widow is forced to rob her husband's grave. These morbid proceedings are treated as hilariously as any slapstick two-reeler or French bedroom farce by director Thomas Guttierez Alea. In tweaking the nose of Cuba's bollixed-up government, Alea condemned his film to the censor's scissors, though Death of a Bureaucrat was released intact outside of its own country of origin.