Movies from Uruguay

It is 1988, and Melo, a Uruguayan town on the Brazilian border, awaits the visit of Pope John Paul II. Numbers begin circulating: hundreds of people will come. No, thousands, say the media. The well-informed speak of 50,000... The poor townspeople know what this means: 50,000 pilgrims in need of food and drink, paper flags, souvenirs, commemorative medals. Brimming with enthusiasm, the villagers not only hope for divine blessing, but above all for a small share of material happiness.

Jacobo is 60 years old and the owner of a sock factory in Montevideo. He's single, living together with his mother. When his long-lost brother resurfaces to participate in the funeral of the deceased mother, Jacobo tries desperately to prove, that his life has added up to something. For his brother, Herman, is a successful director of a stocking factory in Brasil. So Jacobo wants to be able to present a wife and consequently he turns to Marta, his employee at the factory.