O Salvador da Pátria

O Salvador da Pátria (The Savior of the Homeland in English) is a Brazilian telenovela produced and broadcast by TV Globo. It premiered on 9 January and ended on 12 August 1989, with a total of 185 episodes. It's the fortieth "novela das oito" to be aired on the timeslot. It is created by Lauro César Muniz and directed by Gonzaga Blota.^[1]

Plot

Conservative federal deputy Severo Toledo Blanco, the most powerful man in the Ouro Verde region, chooses the naive, simple-minded and illiterate working-class Salvador da Silva, or Sassá Mutema, to marry his mistress Marlene, in an attempt to divert attention from his adultery. The story reaches Juca Pirama, an unscrupulous radio host who demagogically exploits the episode on his radio show.

Soon, a double murder victimizes Marlene and Juca Pirama, with Sassá Mutema as the main suspect - the supposedly betrayed husband who has washed his honor in blood. The hard-working matuto is even arrested, but his innocence is proven with the support of the people and the beautiful teacher Clotilde, who is touched by his situation. It turns out that the moralistic Juca Pirama was actually corrupt and linked to drug trafficking.

Sassá gains popularity and becomes the target of attention from local politicians, who want to manipulate him into becoming mayor of the small town of Tangará. Supported by influential people, Sassá comes to power, but rebels and conquers his own political position, dreaming of a career in Brasilia. Along the way, he counts on the friendship of Clotilde, with whom he falls in love and ends up having an affair.

Meanwhile, a police and political intrigue ensues involving Congressman Severo Blanco, through Gilda, his personable wife, who does everything she can to maintain the failed marriage; Marina Sintra, a wealthy landowner who is his political opponent; and Bárbara Souza Telles, the granddaughter of the region's biggest banker, with whom the Congressman is having a secret affair and who, it turns out, runs the drug trafficking organization.

There is also the plot of the pilot João Matos, who, involved by his brother Juca Pirama, is unjustly accused of drug trafficking. In fact, he has been used as a scapegoat. To escape the police, João assumes another identity: Miro Ferraz. With his marriage to Ângela in crisis, he ends up having an affair with Marina Sintra, while fighting to prove his innocence and take down the criminal organization of which he was a victim.

Cast

Production

To construct part of the plot of O Salvador da Pátria, Lauro César Muniz, at the suggestion of Daniel Filho, a producer at TV Globo, based himself on O Crime do Zé Bigorna, a story he had made for the network to show in the special cases slot in 1974 and which gave rise to the film of the same name in 1977, directed by Anselmo Duarte. The character Zé Bigorna spawned Sassá Mutema, the protagonist of the telenovela; both were played by Lima Duarte.

The synopsis originally proposed that Sassá, an illiterate working class man, should become president of Brazil. However, under pressure from political groups in the midst of the 1989 presidential election, the first after two decades under military dictatorship, Globo ordered the story to be changed, with the character becoming vice-president and then mayor. The ideological camps of the two main candidates saw the soap opera as a way of promoting one over the other - the right, linked to Fernando Collor de Mello, believed that the protagonist favored Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of the left, while the latter considered him a stereotype of the presidential candidate. Thus, Muniz redirected the approach of the novel from political to police themes, involving a drug trafficking organization that would ultimately be denounced by Sassá.

When he reached the final stretch of the soap opera, Muniz took a break from his work due to health problems and commissioned collaborator Alcides Nogueira, with the help of Carlos Lombardi and Ana Maria Moretzsohn, to write the last chapters of the plot. The ending was left to be decided by the author.

The intro for O Salvador da Pátria, developed by Hans Donner's team, was based on five paintings depicting the political evolution of Sassá Mutema. To do this, realistic panels were painted in the studios and scene elements were projected onto them. With the song Amarra o Teu Arado a Uma Estrela, by Gilberto Gil, actor Breno Moroni, in the character of Sassá Mutema, walked through the paintings, simulating going through all the stages of the character's life.

Reception

The show recorded an average viewership rating of 63 points, one of Brazil's top rated telenovelas of all time.^[3]

References

External links

• O Salvador da Pátria at IMDb