The Pope's Toilet (2007)

Hope for a better life is the premise of this splendid bittersweet film from Uruguay. Beto, a hard working commodity smuggler and family man is jumping on the bandwagon to profit from the Pope's visit that it was just announced. This could be the miracle they've been waiting for, the answer to the endless prayers and payback time for all the suffering this Catholic family endured for so long, as long as they can remember. But Beto is clever and he is using his head (as he like to say it in the movie), and he will not offer food, drinks or souvenirs as so many from the village decided to sell, but he is building a toilet, where people will be able to relive themselves, for a fee, after all the food they will gobble. It was the Pope's 37th visit outside of the Holly See from the total of 104 pastoral travels he made during his time in power. Preparations are underway, an enormous crowd from neighboring Brazil is expected, the media is all what is talking about and everyone is eager for the big event. Finally the Pope came, prayed, blessed all big and small, chatted with officials and left. The only thing was missing were the huge crowd, they have been hoping for. There is a very clear and sad message in this poignant and well-made film that is marketed as comedy. One of the funniest scenes is when Beto is setting up the operation and teach his family how to run the "outhouse" business that is offering "half or full" relieving service. I recommend it full heartedly and I hope you will have as much fun watching it as I did.

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!!

The movie broke my heart. I was so proud of the daughter when a tear emerged upon realizing and admiring her father's effort. The scene practising the use of the toilet with "clients" was fabulous.The contrast between what I have and what they haven't is too extreme, YET they do have two supreme possessions -- faith and friendship.The photography was impressive and the poverty was perfectly illustrated.The movie offers no possible way to better the economic status of these dear people. Their lack of money is unrelenting.They could do well in business as they have ideas, are resourceful and hard working. The world is the loser when the creativity of people goes untapped.

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.