Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Havana, 1928–1996), known to his closest friends and colleagues as Titón, was a Cuban writer and director of over 20 features, documentaries, and short films. Often regarded as Cuba’s greatest filmmaker, Gutiérrez studied in Italy’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografía, where he developed an attachment to neorealism before returning to Cuba to help build the country’s post-revolutionary film industry. Along with other young filmmakers, Gutiérrez helped found the influential Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) in 1959, and he would produce the Institute’s first feature-length film, the collective work Historias de la revolución (1960). After the comic satires Doce sillas (1962) and Muerte de un burócrata (1966), Gutiérrez Alea directed his most highly acclaimed film, Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968), a complex look at the moral ambiguity of bourgeoisie life after the onset of the revolution. After a phase devoted to historical themes, whose highlights are Una pelea cubana contra los demonios (1972) and La última cena (1976), Gutiérrez Alea returned to theorising the place of intellectuals and other fringe subjects of Cuban society with Hasta cierto punto (1983) and Fresa y chocolate (1993). Throughout his career, Gutiérrez Alea successfully struck a balance between supporting Castro’s Regime and criticising its shortcomings, while maintaining the respect of the cultural and political establishment throughout.