
            In Melo, Uruguay, a kind of shanty town.Beto (César Troncoso) makes his living of contraband. He smuggles small products from Brazil to Uruaguay, where he lives. He rides with his bike to support his family, wife Carmen (Virginia Méndez) and daughter Silvia (Virginia Ruiz) He has the dream of buying a motorbike, which will increase his opportunities of running away from La Móvil, the mobile customs police who preys on them. The first thing the audience sees is the customs officer called Capitán Álvarez (Baltasar Burgos) tearing into pieces some of the things of Beto's friends. They hardly ever go on those trips on their own. His friend Valvulina (Mario Silva) and more people go with Beto at the same time. One day, he hurts his knee after a fall in his bike. That causes him to try his luck into crossing the border for the road. At the customs, a young soldier makes him open up one of his packets, and along the mate he knew he was carrying, several bullets fall to the floor. Now, Beto is considered a criminal. This makes him feel bad: he will console himself at the local bar, where he gets so pissed that he can't refrain himself from creating a bar browl with the owner, a stutterer (Hugo Blandamuro). Valvulina takes Bet away from the bar, and then Beto's wife and daughter have to take care of him.The Pope's visit to Uruguay has just been announced. Silvia was among the first people who heard of it. A camera crew move to the area where so many people are expecting Pope John Paul II. Many of the neighbrous in the shanty town take a shot at luck and decide to open small business to feed, shelter, entertain all the pilgrims who want to see the pope. They target customer are the thousands of Brazilian Catholics who will cross the border to see the Pople Beto has a idea: to open up a toilet with a door which he will rent to the pilgrims so that they can "evacuate". His wife offers him some money from her savings to set up the business. She takes the money from a glass jar to give it to him.The building of the toilet begins. However, Beto needs more financial resources. He resorts to looking around the home to find the new place where his wife has hidden away the money jar. When she realises that, she tries to avoid it, as she is keeping that money to pay for the expensive course her daughter wants to attend the following year. Beto beats Carmen up, and he would beat her more if their daughter didn't stand in his way. The neighbour of the family, Teresa (Rosario dos Santos), stares at them, worried, but not meddling in their "business".So Beto tries to resort to the local moneylender. His family disapproves of it, as he was the one who put Beto into trouble to begin with. But somehow, like that, the task gets accomplished little by little. Everybody at the town gets in the frenzy of buying things to sell them for a profit during the visit: they are all preparing their stalls with chorizos, hamburgers, water, souvenir medals, etc... The meeting will take place at the Concordia Place, which is close to Melo.Beto tries to train his wife into what things she's supposed to say. The price will be higher if they use a double ration of toilet paper. The daughter is apter, but the mother finds it a bit confusing, as she is not used to.The day of the Pope's visit arrives. Finally, Beto got the toilet itself, so he just needs to take it to the plot of land where his family is waiting for him. All the town is anxious, as they have invested a lot on the event, some of them even reaching the point of mortaging their homes. The meeting takes place at the outskirts of Melo. Beto rejects the help of the moneylender and decides to have some dignity and take the toilet in his bike to the place of the gathering. However, only 8,000 gather to meet the Pope. The meeting is much shorter than what the folkspeople expected. Beto arrives on the nick of time, but not many people is eager to pay when they can leave fast the place for somewhere more comfortable. Everybody has the same problem: only 500 Brazilians attended.After the meeting, a newscaster says that the visit would be repeated in a short while. He talks about the positive economic input and the good morals brought by the visit. Beto thrust a glass of wine agains the bar's tv set. Some time afterwards, all the townfols are still trying to eat all the remaining produce. Beto "bullies" his daughter onto taking her turn in the use of the toilet.
    

Virginia Méndez

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