The people's toilet

We Americans see so few films from Uruguay that when one as accomplished as The Pope's Toilet (El Baño del Papa) comes along, it's difficult not to over-praise, while simultaneously gliding over its some of its subtler accomplishments. First off, the movie is the collaboration between two men -- César Charlone and Enrique Fernández -- who share the responsibility for both writing and directing. How they managed to put together something so seamless would make a fine question for an interview.The Pope's Toilet tells an imagined story within the framework of a real event: the planned visit in 1988 of the penultimate Pope to a small, and rather impoverished, town in Uruguay. The townspeople make plans to profit by the papal visit through whatever means they can: selling everything from chorizos to cotton candy to the crowds who will gather from nearby Brazil (the town is near the border of the two countries). The main characters comprise one family -- dad, mom and teenage daughter -- who, divided among themselves, take a slightly different approach, from which comes the movie's title. In the process of telling their story, the filmmakers show us the life of this town, the family, its neighbors, local law enforcement (we learn a lot about a kind of benign smuggling operation that keeps many of the citizens afloat), and even a little about the local media and the Pope's retinue.