El baño del Papa (The Pope's Toilet) (2007) (review)

El baño del Papa (The Pope's Toilet) is the latest Uruguayan film to receive international acclaim – no small feat for one of the smallest national cinemas of the Americas. Although commercial film projection took place in Montevideo as early as 1898, and movie theater attendance in Uruguay was once proportionally the highest in Latin America, few national feature films were released. Distribution was firmly controlled by foreign companies (mainly those located in the United States), and Uruguayans, like cinema-goers in other Spanish-speaking countries, held to the belief that imported films were always better than their own. These social and historical factors combined to limit the growth and recognition of Uruguayan film, both at home and internationally.

After World War II, Uruguay proudly marketed itself as "the Switzerland of the Americas," and throughout the culturally-focused 1960s, a new generation of directors like Mario Handler and Ugo Ulive introduced Cinema Verite and Direct Cinema, developed in Europe and North America, by filmmakers such as James Peacock and Frederick Wiseman. The Uruguayan adaption of these traditions led to the release of films such as Elecciones (1968) and La bandera que levantamos (The Flag We Raise, 1971). This Golden Age of prosperity, creative productivity, and political stability eroded into social unrest, a coup d'état, and over a decade of right-wing dictatorship that stunted many outlets for artistic and creative production, including film.

Since the return of democratic governance in 1985, new channels have been established in Uruguay for funding and distributing national films, but new challenges have also arisen. Other Latin American cinemas (most notably, Argentina's) have left little room for Uruguay to develop a film industry that could compete with Hollywood products in the Latin American market. In spite of this, recent Uruguayan films have enjoyed remarkable acceptance – many, such as Salvavidas debajo de su asiento ([Life Jacket Is under Your Seat] Leonardo Ricagni, 2002) and the multiple award winning Whisky (Juan Pablo Rebella – Pablo Stoll, 2004), offering commentary on the country's socio-economic conditions – setting their stories in a decaying and dismaying Montevideo, using the city's physical neglect to frame the disillusion and helplessness of a society that is merely a shadow of the affluent nation that it was.

Filmmakers César Charlone and Enrique Fernández add a new narrative to this cinematic tradition – the angst of the orientales (as Uruguayans are also known) – turning the national celebration surrounding the Pope's Uruguayan visit into a commentary on the growing disempowerment of the country's population.

As the film opens, a group of smugglers brings contraband articles across the border, from Brazil into Uruguay. The little town of Melo does not thrive from this illegal commerce, but it does offers a meager living to the men and women who manage to introduce smuggled goods into the town's economy. From this beginning, we witness a chronicle of economic, political, and moral decay, mirroring some of Uruguay's harshest realities. Notably, customs officer Meleyo, who regularly blackmails and humiliates the smugglers, stands as a referent to the structural corruption that has plagued all levels of the administration in Uruguay – the legacy of over two decades of authoritarian rule. Additionally, the narrative highlights the economic crisis caused by the new international economic order, through the loss of foreign markets for export of Uruguayan products, and the shrinking purchasing power of the country's already impoverished citizens.

The film focuses on a bagayero (smuggler) Beto, his wife Carmen, and their teenage daughter, Silvia. Their neighborhood is an unfinished project-turned-shantytown, in which they survive, day-to-day, in dire poverty. The whole community is excited at the impending visit of Pope John Paul II – not only by the honor of the visit, but also, by the hope of earning money, peddling goods to the thousands of pilgrim visitors who are expected to arrive from Brazil. As the...