PORTRAYALS OF PALESTINIAN X JEWISH LOVE STORIES IN BRAZILIAN TELENOVELAS
@professorlehnsherr-almashy @princesssarisa @themousefromfantasyland @lord-antihero @gravedangerahead
@tamisdava2 @faintingheroine
So, as many brazilians, I grew up with telenovelas as the main source of national enternainment.
An interesting characteristic of brazilian telenovelas (specially the ones produced by the channel Rede Globo, the most powerfull TV channel in the country) is that, besides the extra production value that can go to cinematic levels, above the usual budget of other latin american telenovelas or british and US american soap operas, is that they experiment with mixing the escapist love story with discussions of serious real life topics in the side plots: politics, street crime, drugs, mental ilness,domestic violence, sexuality, etc. are themes frequently explored in brazilian telenovelas.
In recent years, there were also international real life topics incorporated to telenovela plots, besides the brazilian reality, including, more recently, two attempts of exploring the Israel x Palestine in love stories between born in imigrant families from those two regions.
One a late night telenovela, the other an evening telenovela.
I would like to present the resume of them here, and how they were received by audiences at the time:
Pérsio and Rebeca (Amor a Vida, 2013-14)
2013's Amor a Vida (Love for Life) included the subplot of the romance between medicine doctors Pérsio (Mouhamed Harfouch), of palestinian origin, and Rebeca (Paula Braum), of jewish origin. The two originally entered in frequent verbal fights before becoming a couple, and when they did, it started as a secret to Rebeca's family, and there was a period they expent broken up because the character of Pérsio revealed that he had a past as a member of a terrorist cell and considered being a bomb man before coming to work in Brazil as a doctor.
But eventually they reunited.
When it camed to reception of this subplot, the average brazilian viewer wasn't much involved because there were already a lot of other subplots to be invested in (particularlly the romance two male character that became the first kiss between two man in a mainstream telenovela), and some leftist groups who were acompanying this story interested in how it would explore this real life conflict were left disapointed, repudiating the reveal of Pérsio as a former terrorist as stereotypical and feeling that it simplified too much the complexity of the real conflict between Israel x Palestine.
Ali and Sara (Órfãos da Terra, 2019)
2019's Órfãos da Terra (Orphans of the Earth) was a telenovela of the 18:00 p.m time spot that experimented in exploring the theme of refugees who were coming in mass to Brazil (particularly from Siria, during the height of the US x Siria warn news) and their descendants. One the plots included inside in this theme was the love story between Ali (also played by Mouhamed Harfouch), the owner of a restaurant, and Sara (Verônica Debom), a customer who learns belly dance with Ali's sister Muna (Lola Fanucci).
Ali was the grandson of the palestinian imigrant Mamede (Flávio Migliaccio), who had lost his home in Gaza during the destruction caused by the Israeli Army.
Sara was the granddaughter of the jewish imigrant Boris (Osmar Prado), daughter of the flower shop owner Eva (Betty Gofman) and sister of Davi (Vitor Thiré), a young woman who was serving in the israeli army due to the encouragement of his grandfather, and against the will of his mother and sister.
The old patriarchs Boris and Mamede were neighbors, and started the story hating each other so much that they wouldn't bear the interactions between their dogs, even less so the romance between their grandchildren.
Sara at first pretended to be a gentile, thinking that Ali would reject her if he knew she was jewish, but that didn't happened: the two kept the relationship strong after she told the truth, and had the support of Sara's mother and Sara's and Ali's siblings to be together.
Despite their grandparents schemes to separate the two and make marry people of shared cultural background (which provided a light hearted comedy), Sara and Ali fortunally got happily married.
The two families ended supporting each other trough sad moments, like Davi's death while serving in the Israeli Army and Mamede's development of Alzheimer's when, and had happy moments like Ali and Sara welcoming twin children.
Unlike the more controversial aproach of 2013's Amor a Vida, the portrayal of the love story between a Palestinian and an Arab in Órfãos da Terra was much better received by audiences and critics, by the levity and the respect in wich the two groups were portrayed, without either being villanized, and the strong trust between the two characters that became the couple.
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@professorlehnsherr-almashy @faintingheroine @adarkrainbow @giuliettaluce @angelixgutz @softlytowardthesun @grimoireoffolkloreandfairytales @themousefromfantasyland @tamisdava2
Based on a series of children's picture books focusing on the relationship between triplet sisters Annie, Tessa and Nellie (Ana, Teresa and Elena in spanish, catalan and portuguese), and the Bored Witch. In each episode the girls get into some sort of mischief and are "punished" by the Bored Witch, who sends them into a traditional fairytale, a legend, a classic work of literature, or a particular period of history.
The series creator, Roser Capdevilla, was inspired by her own triplet daughters to create the title characters.
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