Isaura: Slave Girl

a beautiful series. exotic, romantic, naive. and the inspired introduction to the history and culture of Brasil. because it has the gift to be more than a soap opera. its refined poetry, its clash between a young woman and a terrible master, its delicate manner to remind emotions and songs and ways to live and love and hope are great. real great. the sounds from the film, the sparkles of scenes, after decades, are fresh. not only for its status of the first soap opera on the Romanian TV screens after 1989 but for its strange and seductive force to be unique. so, a special series and one of the lovely examples of Brazilian cinematography.

I watched when I was a child, and I was able to learn about Brazilian history and the situation of slaves in that country. This was a wonderful "soap opera" that it did not have anything in common with the cheap and predictable Mexican soap operas... Great scripts, direction and actors... I remember that I learned about Brazilian music. After watching this series I got hook with other Brazilian "soap operas" such as: "vale todu", "dancing days", etc. I think they should not be classified as "soap operas" but as an entire whole new style in TV production in Latin American. It's worthy to watch them...and try Brazillian films and series.

I first watched this TELENOVELA in the late eighties (dopped in French) and couldn't bare but weep. I recently started watching a re-run (this time on the US-Mexican network: Telemundo) and still remember the story line like it was yesterday!, but what amazes me is how touched i still feel. Lucelio Santos, in my view, practically made Globo TV the power house it is today, with her amazing performance on this series. The expressions are amazingly real, not to mention the setting and script.

The portrayal of Brazil's economic and social stance is chronologically correct,compared to Brazils reality at the time (ie very little fiction is used) Of late ther's been another very similar telenovela (though a little more fictionalthan real) Terra Nostra

I'm not into soap's and never considered "Escrava Isaura" as a soap opera. North American soap's go on forever and depending on the writers and characters you never know where the story begins or if it will ever end! Escrava Isaura is what I would call a mini-series. It's based on a book by Bernardo Guimaraes and takes place in Brazil during African slavery in the mid 1800's. Though not based on a true story but like the movie Titanic....it sunk but the love story between Jack & Rose was fictional. The story takes us to Isaura's pain in the hands of her master's son, her struggle for freedom and the dream of one day being with her true love. It's heart warming and heart wrenching. I loved it when it first aired in 1977 and still one of my favourites to this day.

I have never been a big fan of soap operas, especially when I was a teenager. However, I happened to catch an episode of this serial telenovel (I won't even call it a soap opera) while visiting my family in Singapore back in 1996. Initially, I was just amused that I was watching a Brazilian telenovel dubbed in English and subtitled in Chinese; but it didn't take long for me to understand its international success. The themes are universal and cover everything from love vs. obsession, compassion vs. cruelty, rich vs. poor, and so many more--without being cliché' or cheesy. I was hooked after one episode and the spent everyday glued to the living room floor, for the hour it came on, the whole 3 months I spent in Singapore. This telenovel is far superior to any daytime drama I've ever seen, probably better than most primetime dramas (as these were originally aired in the evening in Brazil). Even if you don't like 'soap operas' this is definitely not a series to miss!