Past Film/Video | Classics

The Survivors

(Los sobrevivientes, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1979)

New Restoration

Info & Tickets

An older man kisses a younger woman on the forehead. She has brown hair and is looking down wearing a yellow formal dress.

Jun 20, 2024 7:00 PM

Film/Video Theater

$7 members and adults 55 and over
$9 general public
$5 students

ACCESSIBILITY
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The Survivors is a darkly comic allegory that leaves no easy answers.

Gutiérrez Alea’s remorseless study of the delusions of class was dedicated to cinematic great Luis Buñuel. The Survivors follows the Orozco clan, a bourgeois family living in the Cuban countryside who decide to seal their mansion off from the world and the rising 1959 revolution. They’ve stockpiled food and hope to pass the time until the new government is overthrown. But as the years pass, the family begins to regress through increasingly primitive forms of social order: capitalism and feudalism, slavery and savagery—and worse. In Spanish with English subtitles. (130 mins., 4K DCP)

See the entire Tomás Gutiérrez Alea lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
The Survivors, courtesy of Cohen Film Collection.

Feature: “Tomás Gutiérrez Alea,” Julia Levin, Senses of Cinema

Analysis: “‘Los Sobrvivientes (The Survivors)’,” Kevin Hagopian, Penn State University

More about the filmmaker

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (1928–1996) wrote and directed more than 20 features, documentaries, and short films throughout his life. Steeped in film history during his studies at Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Gutiérrez Alea pays homage in his films to the greats who inspired him, including Charlie Chaplin and Luis Buñuel. Following the Cuban revolution in 1959, and with the support of the Castro regime, he and a group of other young filmmakers founded the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC). The collective advocated for film as an art form and as the best method of disseminating revolutionary ideals to the masses. Ever dedicated to the revolution, his films nonetheless deftly critique the social, economic, and political realities of life in Cuba.

Tag(s)

Film/Video

Restored by the Academy Film Archive in association with Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industrias Cinematográficos.

Copromotional support provided by Ohio State's Center for Latin American Studies.

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
National Endowment for the Arts
Ohio Humanities

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Ohio Department of Development
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts
CampusParc
Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme
The Columbus Foundation
Axium Packaging
Nationwide Foundation
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane
Nancy Kramer
Ohio State Energy Partners
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection
Larry and Donna James
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang
Bruce and Joy Soll
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle
Jones Day
Alex and Renée Shumate