This film heralded a new genre of sociocritical comedy in Cuba and was the debut feature of director Juan Carlos Tabio. It is full of Cubanisms – popular everyday problems, language and attitudes of that era and a range of characters from an idealist architect to an opportunistic bureaucrat.

Gloria wants her adult daughter to find a husband, who she considers a “good match”, and engineers a chain of house swaps to move to a “better neighbourhood” to make things go her way - but her daughter has different ideas and to love who she wants. It examines the desire to get ahead in a society that says everyone is equal but also celebrates the resourcefulness with which people solve their own problems.