Isaura the slave (telenovela, 1976)
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| German title | Isaura the slave |
| Original title | Escrava Isaura |
 | |
| Country of production | Brazil |
| original language | Portuguese |
| Year (s) | 1976-1977 |
| length | 60 minutes |
| Episodes | in orig. 100, in Ger. 40 episodes |
| genre | Telenovela |
| idea | Bernardo Guimarães , Gilberto Braga |
| First broadcast | November 10, 1976 at Rede Globo |
| German-language first broadcast |
November 24, 1986 (FRG) on ARD |
| occupation | |
| |
The slave Isaura (original title: Escrava Isaura ) is a Brazilian telenovela that is still considered the most successful of its genre. The television series was sold in 95 countries and was one of the first western programs that were allowed to be broadcast in the Eastern Bloc and were successful. Western actors were represented there for the first time when the series was broadcast on Chinese television. Milton Gonçalves and Herval Rossano directed it at the time .
action
Isaura is at the beginning of the 19th century at the time of slavery , the daughter of a white-skinned slave girl named Juliana and a plantation manager named Miguel on the South American Tobacco - Plantation ( Fazenda ) by Don Almeida near Rio de Janeiro born. Since her mother dies during childbirth and Don Almeida dismissed her father months in advance after the relationship became known, Isaura is raised by her mistress Dona Ester like her own child. On the other hand, her master Don Almeida treats her in a cool and dismissive manner. Isaura receives lessons from Dona Ester, learns to play the piano and the French language and is indistinguishable from a "normal" citizen by her appearance alone.
Since childhood she has been constantly sexually harassed by Leôncio, the son of her owners. Eventually Leôncio was sent to Europe, to Paris to the university.
The viewer only learns about all of this gradually in the course of the first episodes. The plot begins shortly before Leôncio returns from Paris. While Dona Ester believes in the good in her son, Don Almeida fears that Leôncio only wants to return because he has given away all the money. In fact, Leôncio comes back to Brazil without a degree in his pocket, but even more viciously, and begins to pursue Isaura again. At the same time, however, the slave Rosa Leôncio also makes certain approaches. Rosa tries to use her appearance to her advantage and does not shy away from betraying other slaves to the overseers - even if in the first episodes she secretly brings the slave Andrè to eat in the pillory. In Isaura she increasingly sees a competitor. Rosa intrigues against Isaura several times in the course of the plot.
But Isaura gets to know Tobias Paes Vidal, the owner of the neighboring plantation. At first he has no idea that he is dealing with a slave at Isaura. They both fall in love. Without both knowing about it, a man named Miguel works as a manager on Tobias' plantation, who is none other than Isaura's father and who wants nothing more than to be able to buy his daughter out and save his money for it. When he asked Tobias how much a slave would cost, Tobias gave him a price of 3 million reais, which, however, was beyond Miguel's possibilities.
Isaura hears from the cook Januária, who has been in secret contact with Miguel over the years, that Don Almeida admired Isaura's mother Juliana as much as Leôncio now adored her and that there was suspicion of being his illegitimate daughter. That was also one of the reasons why Dona Ester took Isauras on. In the course of the story, Isaura eventually meets her real father. She would like to lead a normal life with him.
Don Almeida tries to tame his son Leôncio by marrying Malvina Fontoura, which Leôncio initially thinks nothing of. Malvina is the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner who, unlike Almeida, treats his slaves relatively well. Finally, Malvina and Leôncio get to know each other, develop a certain sympathy for each other and finally want to get married.
Dona Ester, who promised Isaura her freedom, falls ill and is noticeably weaker. She succeeds in convincing Don Almeida to write and sign a letter of release for Isaura, arguing that Leôncio often acts rashly and that Isaura should be free if she should die. But Almeida puts the letter in a safe so that only the two of them know where the document is stored. Almeida tells Leôncio about the letter, but explains at the same time that he does not intend to grant his wife's wish.
A short time later, Dona Ester dies of the consequences of her illness and Leôncio's father turns to the much younger actress Carmen, with whom he has had a relationship for a long time - which is only hinted at in the abridged German version - and finally wants to marry her. Since Leôncio, who has never liked her, fears for his inheritance, he threatens his father Almeida to have his mental state examined. Almeida then transfers the fazenda to Leôncio, which is gracious to him and only insists on the apartment in Rio de Janeiro. On his last visit to the fazenda with his newly-wed Carmen, he fetches all the documents from the safe, about which Leôncio knows nothing. In the process Carmen, who is kind to Isaura, discovers the release letter. Almeida wants to destroy him, but Carmen manages to keep the document under a pretext. She passes the letter to Henrique, Malvina's brother, who in turn is in contact with Tobias.
After Tobias explains to Leôncio that he loves Isaura, the latter leaves no stone unturned to tell the two apart. When Leôncio learns that Tobias is in possession of the release letter for Isaura, he has Tobias kidnapped, locked up in an old corn mill and burned the document in front of his eyes. Malvina, led by the slave Santa, is looking for Tobias, finds him in the mill and wants to free him, but Leôncio believes it is Isaura. Furious with jealousy, he sets fire to the building; Tobias and Malvina perish in the fire. Santa becomes an eyewitness to the incident, but is intimidated by the slave driver Francisco to keep her silent.
The father now wants to buy her free, but Leôncio puts an inflated price of 15 million reais (a conventional slave costs 2 million reais around the time, a "pretty slave" 3 million, is mentioned as a comparison in the film) to make any purchase attempt impossible. In the end it is possible for Isaura to collect the money with the help of the generous donation from Tais - Tobias' sister, who sells all of her family jewelry for her; but Leôncio, who first signed the ransom, tore up the document a moment later, arguing that no one could force him to sell his property.
On the same day, Leôncio Isaura confesses his love, but she can no longer feel sorry for him. This in turn enrags Leôncio to such an extent that he heaped harassment on her.
In the same night Miguel succeeds through Januaryia and with the help of the 15 million reais to free Isaura and to flee with her and the slave couple Santa and Andrè. They find shelter in a country house owned by Dona Carmen near Rio de Janeiro.
Isaura lets himself be called "Elvira" for camouflage, but Leôncio lets them search. He is offering a bounty of 15 million reais. A distinguished and extremely wealthy citizen named Alvaro, who belongs to abolitionism , falls in love with Isaura, albeit without realizing that she is an escaped slave. Nobody seems to recognize the Isaura they are looking for in Dona “Elvira”, and at first it looks as if Isaura, Miguel, Santa and André will remain unmolested.
In the meantime, the characters Aninha, José and Senhor Martoso suddenly appear in the German series version for the first time, who are related to each other and are on friendly terms with Leôncio. In the end, José is inspired by the idea of setting up the widowed and most likely unhappy Leôncio with his sister Aninha. In fact, he only wants to marry his sister because only then will he receive a larger sum after the father's will. He needs it because he has amassed enormous gambling debts.
Leôncio puts another search advertisement off and increases the bounty to 20 million reais. Two people now become suspicious, one of them Martinho, a friend of Alvaro's. The latter contacts Leôncio. The growing hope in Isaura in Leôncio finally makes him agree to marry Aninha, whereupon Henrique vigorously - but ultimately unsuccessfully - persuades Senhor Martoso and José that they should definitely prevent this wedding.
Alvaro persuades "Elvira" to accompany him to a ball. There, however, she is finally exposed by Martinho. Alvaro manages to change Martinho's mind by giving him 20 million reais if he told Leôncio that he was wrong about the person he was looking for.
But a second person, a younger woman, contacts Leôncio and tells him where he is hiding. After Leôncio finally has Isaura, Santa and Andrè back in his hands and has Miguel arrested, he owes the traitor the promised bounty.
Leôncio's vengeance is cruel. He has Isaura pilloried and then works in the sugar cane fields. Alvaros tries to free Isaura together with Henrique, but the attempt fails because the slave Rosa immediately reports the attempt to escape to the guards. In order to break Isaura's will, Leôncio even has a letter forged in Alvaro's script, in which Alvaro confessed to Isaura that he was no longer interested in her. In order to humiliate her and under the pretext of getting her father out of prison in this way, Leôncio finally wants to marry her to the gardener Beltrao, who is an ugly old man.
Everything seems lost at first, but finally Alvaro and Henrique burst into the scheduled wedding ceremony. Alvaro was able to find out that Leôncio is now bankrupt due to his dissolute lifestyle, and has therefore gradually bought up all promissory notes through straw men and has thus become the new owner of Leôncio's property - including Isaura.
Leôncio knows no way out and shoots himself.
At first everything looks like a happy ending, but Rosa is not ready to accept Isaura as the new mistress of the house. Therefore, she eventually tries to poison Isaura. She puts two drink bowls on a tray, adds poison to one and offers them to Isaura and Alvaro as a drink of reconciliation. The plan almost seems to work because Isaura reached for the poisoned drink. But Dona Carmen joins them and puts two more drink bowls on the tray with the wish that four of us should toast. By cleverly placing the two other bowls, the poison potion is now on Rosa's side. She, in turn, is confused and reaches for the bowl that is closest to her. And to heat up the tension, the camera is pointed at each of the four present, and the plot freezes for a moment. Finally, a scream from Rosa, who writhes in agony, resolves the situation.
background
Novel and other film adaptations
The telenovela is based on the novel Die Sklavin Isaura by the Brazilian author Bernardo Guimarães from 1875. The anti-slavery book is read in schools in Brazil and has been filmed several times, first as a silent film in 1929, then as a feature film in 1949 and most recently as a new edition of Series in 2004, with one of the two 1976 directors, Herval Rossano . Rubens de Falco , who played Leôncio in 1976, was included in the new edition in which he played the role of Don Almeida. In 1976 he was cast alongside the then 19-year-old Lucélia Santos as a teenage villain, although he was only four years younger than his film father Gilberto Martinho . Even Norma Blum , who played the role of the oppressed wife Malvina in the version from 1976, was occupied again, to a new version this time she appeared in the role of Gertrude , a figure in the series of 1976 does not occur with.
music
The theme music for the telenovela Escrava Isaura is a reduced new version of the song Retirantes by Dorival Caymmi . A CD with the series' soundtrack has also been released. Recurring main musical themes of the series were:
- Prisioneira by Elizeth Cardoso
- Amor sen Medo by Francis Hime
- Retirantes by Dorival Caymmi ( theme music)
- Nana by Orquestra Som Livre
- Banzo from Tincoas
- Moe preta by Coral Som Livre
The arranger was César Guerra-Peixe , the music producer Guto Graça Mello
Broadcasts
The slave Isaura was broadcast on Rede Globo from October 11, 1976 to February 5, 1977 at 6 p.m. It was first broadcast in Argentina on September 20, 1982, in France on November 5, 1984, and in Poland in 1984. In Poland, the series was broadcast again in 2001 and April 4, 2005. In the original it has 100 episodes of 60 minutes each. For Germany it was cut into 40 episodes of 25 minutes each in order to streamline the story, but this did not diminish the success.
The episode titles of the episodes broadcast in Germany were:
1. An extraordinary girl
2. Leôncio's return
3. Trials of strength
4. The selfish son
5. The benefactress
6. The hide and seek
7. Suppressed desires
8. Shadows of the past
9. Opposing opinions
10. Family quarrel
11. Meetings 12. Confessions of
love
13. The Reunification
14. The theater visit
15. The reception
16. A tempting offer
17. The wedding
18. The tyrant
19. Dona Ester's last wish
20. The letter withheld
21. The refusal
22. Secrecy
23. The rift
24. Resistance
25. The Release letter
26. Deceptive happiness
27. The fire
28. False freedom
29. At the bottom
30. A generous gesture
31. The escape
32. In hiding
33. In constant danger
34. Inquiries
35. New love
36. Treason
37. Corrupt deals
38 Desperate acts
39. A diabolical strategy
40. The final fight
The premiere in Germany was on November 24, 1986 on ARD , the last episode was broadcast on February 5, 1987. The episodes were broadcast four days a week, Monday to Thursday afternoons around 4 p.m., with the exception of the Christmas and New Year's Eve holidays, which ran from December 24th to 28th and December 31st to January 4th no broadcasts took place. Other channels that included the series in their programs were West 3 (1990), Bayerisches Fernsehen (1991), ORB (1992), Eins Plus (1993), DF1 Herz & Co TV (1997/98) and Premiere Sunset TV ( 1999). The series was originally aimed at children and young people, but surprisingly, more and more adults responded to the series.
The series was one of the few western series that were allowed to be broadcast beyond the Iron Curtain , as the historical subject and the anti-capitalist theme were well suited to the socialist ideologies of the time. Hungary was the first Eastern Bloc country to include the series in its program. It was broadcast there in 1986 on MTV ( Magyar Televízió ) and was a huge success. A modern legend reports that Hungarian viewers of the television series collected 75,000 US dollars and handed them over to the Brazilian embassy for the liberation of Isaura.
After Hungary, more and more states of the Eastern Bloc included the series in their programs, including the former USSR and finally China . The slave girl Isaura was the first western television production that was allowed to be broadcast in China. In Cuba it even became Fidel Castro's favorite show , which is said to have postponed central committee meetings so as not to miss any episode. Lucélia Santos became Castro's favorite actress and was invited to Cuba several times by him. Santos also became a movie star in China and still works today as the Brazilian government's representative to strengthen cultural ties between Brazil and China. The series was not broadcast in the GDR.
In total, the series was sold in 95 countries, and thanks to its international success , the Rede Globo television station is now one of the largest television stations in the world.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.quetzal-leipzig.de/themen/kultur/medien-und-kommunikation/die-entwicklungsgeschichte-der-lateinamerikanische-telenovela-von-den-anfangen-bis-zur-transkulturellen-verbendung-19093.html - Under the chapter: VI. Telenovela goes global - transnationalization and transculturalization from the late 1970s
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↑ Telenovela overview: Telenovelas that were broadcast on German TV ( Memento from October 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
http://www.fernsehserien.de/index.php?serie=0636&seite=6 - ↑ Prisma 9/1987, p. 18 quoted from http://www.bamby.de/1986/86Isaura00.htm
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↑ http://www.teledramaturgia1.kit.net/alfabetica.htm - Under Escrava Isaura , page in Portuguese
ESCRAVA ISAURA - Rabszolgasors ( memento of October 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), page in Hungarian with film photos - ↑ DIE ZEIT, Telenovela or The Neverending Series Anne Schiwek, September 16, 1988 No. 38
Web links
- The slave Isaura in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Portuguese page about the series ( Memento of May 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive )