The Pope's Toilet
by Cesar Charlone and Enrique Fernandez
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DVD details
Actor: Cesar Troncoso, Virginia MendezDirector: Cesar Charlone and Enrique Fernandez
Brand: Repnet LLC
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-04-14
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Film Movement
DVD Reviews of The Pope's Toilet
DVD Review: A moving story with political and religious undertones
Summary: 5 Stars
A town in northern Uruguay, 60km from the Brazilian border, is excited about the impeding papal visit. Residents discuss ahead of time how to prepare their town for such an honor. The local TV station hypes up the visit, interviews its people and we learn that many of the residents had taken out loans to beautify their homes and town for the visit and to sell goods for visitors from Brazil.
It's a touching enough story. The plot evolves around one poor family of husband Beto, a smalltown smuggler riding an old one-speed into Brazil for goods he can sell at a profit in town. He thinks himself above his simple-thinking wife. He, afterall, uses his "thinking cap" and shemes up ways to make a living. But if only he had paid attention to her idea of profiting from the papal visit!
Apparently a lot of other bicyle-riding smugglers do this for a living, as the disinterested border guards let most through without stopping (unless they are black). The Brazilians don't care much for these poor Uruguayans who keep cycling across the border, and the Uruguayans seem quite content with their lives.
All around you is poverty. Stray dogs stroll around town looking for handouts. Old men sit in front of their homes chatting with neighbors. The flat, green fields around Melo are the backdrop of this movie, and all the neighbors seem to get along in their communal poverty. It really doesn't look like a town the Pope would or should visit.
Carmen, Beto's loyal wife, despairs of her husband's grandiose ideas but supports him anyway. Their daughter Silvia (who has dreams of being a radio announcer one day), somehow is the most beautiful creature in this movie seems to be accepting of her fate yet sees the family savings go to waste for the papal visit.
Beto makes a lot of smuggling attempts just to make enough money to buy the supplies he needs for his toilet. He even trains his wife and daughter in how to approach tourists and sell them the use of the toilet. Some of the scenes are quite heartbreaking, because even though there's no doubt that Beto loves his wife and daughter, he also has a violent, drunken side to him. And for him, there would be nothing better than buying a motorbike from the profits of that toilet.
But why would the Pope come to such a down-trodden town that doesn't even have plumbing? The townsmen don't see it that way. To them the Pope is coming because he loves them. The media hype up the visit; up to 300,000 people could be coming to Melo and this is going to make a lot of poor people in town much, much richer!
Here is where the movie becomes a hidden message of blind religious faith and political manipulation. In the end the papal visit doesn't quite turn out as planned. The Pope (actual footage of his real visit to Melo in 1988) gives his short speech in Spanish and then goes back to his Popemobile and drives on.
"Is it over?" asks Carmen as she watches the Pope via a town's small black and white TV. The TV commentator continues to smile and smalltalk about the grandiose visit.
This movie was tenderly portrayed. The actors seemed so real in their characters. The town always played a role in this movie, either up close with its cracked facades, or as a dirty village in a riverplain. In the end the viewer wants to step inside the town and give everyone a hug for everything they did for the papal visit.
I enjoyed this movie. I predicted the end accurately but there is more to this story. It's about faith, family bonds, neighborly devotion and dreams, as well as the manipulation the Catholic Church uses on its followers.
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Description of The Pope's Toilet
It s 1988, and Melo, an Uruguayan town on the Brazilian border, awaits the visit of Pope John Paul II. 50,000 people are expected to attend, and the most humble locals believe that selling food and drink to the multitude will just about make them rich. Petty smuggler Beto thinks he has the best idea of all--he decides he will build a WC in front of his house and charge for its use. His efforts bring about unexpected consequences, and the final results will surprise everyone.An alternatingly touching, humorous and poignant story of human dignity and solidarity from director/scriptwriter Enrique Fernández and noted cinematographer César Charlone (Oscar-nominated City of God ). Co-produced by Oscar-nominee Fernando Meirelles ( City of God and The Constant Gardener ).
WINNER Horizons Award, San Sebastian International Film Festival
WINNER International Jury Award, Sao Paulo International Film Festival
WINNER Audience Award, Golden Kikito and Kikito Critic s Prize, Gramado Film Festival
WINNER Silver Colon, Huelva Latin American Film Festival
NOMINATED Golden Colon, Huelva Latin American Film Festival
WINNER Best First Work, TVE Award, Lleida Latin American Film Festival
WINNER Best First Film, Best Actor and Best Cinematography, Providence Latino Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION Cannes Film Festival, La Rochelle Film Festival, Lama Film Festival, Montevideo International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, San Luis Cine International Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival
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