EL BANO DEL PAPA (THE POPE

Uruguay, France & Brazil/2007/Colour/Spanish dialogue with English subtitles/35mm/97 mins

It’s 1988 and Pope John Paul II is to visit Melo, a small Uruguayan town on the Brazilian border, on his Latin American tour. Belo (Cesar Troncoso) is a small-time smuggler who bicycles 60 kilometers a day, much of it over countryside, to avoid a customs post. When he hears of other townspeople cooking cakes and chorizo sausages to feed the thousands of Brazilians who will visit Melo to see the Pope, he has an idea – he will provide them with a public toilet but how to pay for it? Life, of course, doesn’t always turn out the way it was planned and the townspeople of Melo are left with little spiritual uplift – and a whole lot poorer.

“From the Pope’s real-life tour comes a fable of the indomitable spirit of the poor. Melo is co-director Enrique Fernández’s home town and his and César Charlone’s tale is touching, amusing and wonderfully ironic. Add the playing of Troncoso, Virginia Mendez and Virginia Ruiz, as Belo’s wife and daughter, and the photography of Charlone, and cinematic pleasures abound.” – Sheila Whitaker

Starring : César Charlone, Virginia Mendez, Virginia Ruiz, Mario Silva, Nelson Lence
Director(s) :

Enrique Fernández

ENRIQUE FERNANDEZ was born in Melo, Uruguay, and trained at the national Cinemateque. A teacher of literature, he has worked as an assistant director, cinematographer, editor and scriptwriter, on shorts, documentaries and features.

César Charlone

CESAR CHARLONE was born in 1958 in Montevideo, Uruguay, and studied at the Academia Internacional de Cinema in São Paulo. One of South America’s most acclaimed cinematographers, he won several international awards and was nominated for an Oscar for City of God (2002) and was nominated for a Bafta for The Constant Gardener (2005).
Crew : , Elena Roux(Producer), Gustavo Giani(Editor), Luciano Supervielle(Composer), Gabriel Casacuberta(Composer)
Format : 35 mm
Running Time : 97 mins
Country : Uruguay
Programme : The Cinema of the World
Venue : Mall of the Emirates - CineStar 1, Mall of the Emirates - CineStar 1, Mall of the Emirates - CineStar 9, Mall of the Emirates - CineStar 9
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