El baño del Papa

I recently was browsing the foreign movie section of my local library and stumbled upon this particular DVD. I didn't pay much attention to it, other than it was released by Film Movement, which has an amazing library of indie and foreign films, and so I went ahead and picked it up.

"The Pope's Toilet" (2007 release from Uruguay; 97 min.) brings the story of Beto and his family and friend in the Melo community in Uruguay, not far from the border from Brazil. As the movie opens, we see Beto and several others biking back into Uruguay, heavily loaded with packages of all kinds. It's not long before we understand that Beto and his friends make a living smuggling everyday goods from southern Brazil into Melo. Meanwhile, Melo is getting excited about the upcoming visit of Pope John Paul II, and Beto and many others are thinking of a way to take advantage of this unexpected economic opportunity. To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: first, it wasn't until I was about to start watching this that I noticed this movie originally came out in 2007, so almost 10 years ago. It is amazing then to notice that the movie has a certain timelessness about it, as I found this movie utterly fresh and mesmerizing. I was at first a little put off by the movie's opening disclaimer that the events portrayed in the movie are "in essence true and it's only by chance they didn't occur the way they're told here", whatever that is supposed to mean. But the Pope did in fact visit Melo (in May, 1988). Second, the movie's director pays close attention to the economic struggles of the Melo community, synthesized here by Beto and his wife and daughter. His wife has accepted her fate, while his daughter has big dreams of becoming a radio announcer and going to study in Uruguay's far-away capital Montevideo. In that sense, this is a rather depressing movie, as life is hard for this remote community. It's all the more exciting then when the preparations for the Pope's visit begin (signs emphasize the blue collar aspects of Melo), and people in Melo are wondering/contemplating how many Brazilians will cross the border for this historic moment (and spend money in the Melo community): 2,000? 20,000? 200,000?

Per the usual, the Film Movement DVD comes with a bonus shortie, this time the excellent "Video 3000" (5 min.) from Germany, an animated shortie about a person who has just received his new DVD player, and is trying to figure out the remote control. Just watch! Meanwhile, "The Pope's Toilet" is an excellent example of Film Movement's rich library of foreign and indie movies. "The Pope's Toilet" is HIGHLY RECOMMEDED!

Melo is like this. The film shows the reality of this area of the country where very poor people have to do their best in order to survive. It is the reality of most of our peoples in Latin America. Their dreams and their daily struggle against poverty and frustration. The Pope's visit is a very good way to show what these people do every day to live a "decent" life. The direction, the actors, the natural scenery. everything is in its right place and all of us left the theater with the feeling that life is so and nobody can do anything to change the way thing are for them. Just one word to define it: Excellent.

Don't be put off by the title, as Uruguyan writer/directors César Charlone and Enrique Fernández have, in 2007's The Pope's Toilet, crafted something stirring; resounding; fascinating and heart breakingly tragic, a classy adaptation of true circumstances once upon a time. The film covers a handful of people in and around a poor family of a small Uruguyan town on the Brazilian border called Melo and what it is they believe in; what it is they entrust their dreams and aspirations with, be they of a religious ilk or even career related, and the consequent danger of these things being shattered. The film is a humbling, down to Earth drama about people living in border-line third world conditions just trying to pull through; a harsh damning-come-exploration of supply and demand business ideologies; a light, non-causality driven comedy about a family man and his local friends; a terrifying drama about a man on the edge as he invests time and money in a venture for sake of Capital gain. It is a remarkable little drama, a deftly directed piece which changes gears and tones as easily as you like and retains a certain balanced sense of both joy and foreboding throughout.

César Troncoso plays Beto, the father of daughter Silvia (Ruiz), and husband of wife Carmen (Méndez). He is a man living with them under living conditions as basic as you like, persistent sights of burnt out cars and trucks sitting around on neighbouring lawns, peeling walls on a number of local buildings and dirt roads more often than not leading you off to wherever it is you want to go. When we first see Beto he is, like many people appear to do so, journeying back home to Uruguay from adjacent Brazil following some shopping; dealing and, ultimately, some smuggling. His pedal bike is no match for those surging by on scooters, his idea to skip around the checkpoint to avoid the authorities no match for their off terrain truck headed by a foul mouthed customs official whom takes sadistic glee in infantalising them via his verbal berating and then scuppering their plans. Times are tough, with even those whom are of similar ilk to you in the form of his class and predicament seemingly outranking him in the form of their transportation.

Opportunity strikes when it is announced Pope John Paul II is to come to their tiny town for a mass gathering; sessions of prayer and Catholic rejoice sure to follow. Devout Catholics themselves, Beto and the locals' true cause for celebration arrives in the form of business franchises and ventures that they feel they can set up so as to rake in money off of the large number of people whom will gather in their town as a result of this coming. The announcing of it is followed by a technique known as the gaze, which is applied to the film by Charlone and Fernández during which the lead's intense stare back at the screen is captured moments after the TV announcement. It suggests a look of longing, not in an erotic sense as usually is with said technique but in a manner resembling 'want' as ideas resonate. We sense he smells an opening after defeats to the state in the form of customs, with which a large legal cash flow will surely arrive given this fresh revelation, and it is here the film concentrates on his drive to do what he decides to do. Some are getting ready to dish out large amounts of food, others try selling clothes and Beto is stuck on constructing the titular lavatory: a public toilet located in his front garden in a booth complete with hand-wash and dry service at a counter just outside it.

Where others have gone down more familiarised, even normalised, routes; Beto has thought outside the box and gone into the constructing of a toilet out-house cubicle, one he reckons of only very few lavatory's within the area that will cater to those whom need it. As hype around the visit builds and they struggle to finish off the cubicle with mounting issues outside of this venture, a real sense of tension and something on the line is flawlessly inserted into proceedings. The thrill is in how the film puts mostly everything the family aspire to on the line at expense of this Papal visit, and Beto's charging around attempting to fulfil this dream and prove himself to his family as a pure, unadulterated Capitalist cash-bringer. Silvia appears to be headed for a career in sewing and stitching, something she would much rather substitute for a job within the media industry resembling working as an anchorwoman, but something that would require high university fees and the living in capital Montevideo. With Carmen, the arguments and disagreements that hint at near full-on disenchantment between the two of them in their marriage are papered over only by the odd uplifting exchange. You feel a greater extent of well being and positive attachment between the two is at stake.

Where a Spanish language film set in the 1980s about a poor Urugyuan constructing a public loo for a visit of The Pope may very well turn people off the idea of seeing this wonderful drama, those without a philistinery gene will surely warm to the piece. On a closing note, and when certain first round groups of the recent 2010 football World Cup concluded, there was a short VT on television about a South African woman and her one-off market stall franchise which would now have to be shut down. This was due to the leaving of so many foreigners and tourists whom come to where she was based but then left as the event shipped out of her home city. With it, all extra business gone too. I didn't think much of it at the time, but seeing this 2007 piece and recalling that woman had me see things a little clearer: a triumph.

Reading the seven reviews about this movie broke my heart. How is it possible that we have only seven reviews of such a good movie when we see some dribbling silly Hollywood comedies with hundreds of reviews??

Well, that tells us about the sad state of the world. "El baño del Papa", ("The Pope's toilet"), has received, from seven reviewers, very well appointed comments, so I won't go much further into that; just from my point of view, I can add that I don't remember having seen a film as dark as this one with that sort of a downhearted feeling at the very end.

It reminds one of the 1940's Italian neorealist cinema. Or the Brazilian films about poor people. The contrast between the Pope, wrapped within yards and yards of excellent quality clothes, clean, perfectly shaved, probably exquisitely perfumed and made up, enclosed in his armor-plated Papa mobile, unreachable, aloof, always surrounded by dozens of bodyguards, delivering his totally unrealistic talk and obviously ready to leave that miserable place as soon as polite etiquette will allow him to, and the stark poverty of these suffering and hungry strata of humanity, full of aborted expectations and barely covered in rags in that very cold morning, reminded me of another excellent film, the Italian: "Brutti, Sporchi e Cattivi" ("Ugly, Filthy and Bad"), filmed with the same kind of marginal people and showing their fight for survival at any cost.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

But the glory of this film comes with the final scene, the one around which the whole movie was constructed. We are given the same expectations of sudden riches that these villagers have had throughout the whole movie, from the very beginning, when they learn by watching the news on TV that the Pope will make a stop at Merlo, their forgotten little place in Uruguay, borderline with Brazil, to be cruelly taken away with a sudden crush from cold reality in no more than 10 minutes at the end, after a whole month of expensive preparations for the event, all villagers hoping to make some money from the tourists coming from Brazil to see the Pope in person. Tourists that will be hungry and thirsty and will buy all the food prepared during that month of high expectations. Only 400 hundred tourist came for the event, and the locals have had almost 400 hundred tents collapsing with food!! (they were told by irresponsible TV people that 50.000 visitors where expected!!)

Practically none of the tourists bought anything, in total indifference to the many offerings, and they left as they came, on their buses.

Totally heartbreaking. These villagers invested every little cent they had (some of them taking a mortgage on their sordid homes!!). It leaves you breathless. What a lay down!! Probably, as I said before, one of the most overpowering endings of any movie I had ever seen.

This devastating event really took place in Uruguay in 1988.

*END OF SPOILERS*

"The Pope's toilet", another foreign film (for the USA) that Hollywood will never dream of touching, not even with a ten foot pole, to make an American remake of it. But this one YOU MUST SEE!!

This was one of the main films I wanted to see this year at the Toronto Film Festival due to the rave reviews on this site. I am glad I did but in my estimation did not deserve a 9 or 10 rating.

It's 1988 and a small very poor Uruguayan town is in a papal frenzy, Pope John Paul II is coming! The citizens are concerned with what will be needed to accommodate over 50,000+ visitors and be pleasing to his holiness. Food and drink is on most of their minds, but Beto, has the after effects fully in his mind but just needs the money to build a toilet without going into debt like most of the other villagers.

One of the main theme which runs through this movie is that most of the village men are smugglers, that is their lively hood. The border between Uruguay and Brazil is right there, supplies are available in Brazil which are not in Uruguay. There is also a cat and mouse game with the head honcho of the border patrol who also wants his cut along with everyone else.

I think the story could have moved a lot faster in the first 40 minutes but they were getting us acquainted to the characters, village and how things work (smuggling) in their neck of the woods so to speak. The use of the hand held cameras was awkward at times (assuming this due to the jumpiness) but sort of reminiscent of how the TV series "Homicide: Life on the Street" was filmed. This movie was very well done, you bond with the characters fairly fast. Very few of the principal actors were real professionals, many were villagers of the area they were filming in. I doubt this film will be in my top pick of this years films, BUT, it did have a very charming quality, beautiful scenery and totally worth seeing.