Aruanas aims to make the environment an ‘everyday topic’ at a time when politics is dominated by the interests of agribusiness

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Deep in the Brazilian Amazon, an environmental activist meets with a journalist who warns that a mining company is responsible for a looming environmental disaster. “People are already getting sick,” he warns, before promising to bring her documentary proof the next day.

But in the jungle, someone is watching. Driving to their next meeting, the activist hears a phone ringing in the back of her car. She opens the trunk – and finds the journalist’s dead body.

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The gruesome discovery is the opening act of the latest blockbuster series from Brazil’s telenovela powerhouse TV Globo: Aruanas. The series focuses on environmental journalists and activists in the country’s vast, forested interior, where 57 environmental defenders were killed in 2017.

Brazil’s telenovelas have a history of shaping public opinion on current affairs – and this series tackles one of the country’s most pressing issues: the high-stakes battle over the world’s largest rainforest at a time when politics is dominated by the interests of agribusiness.

The largest caucus in Brazil’s congress – the ruralista bloc – represents agribusiness interests, and in January their longtime ally, Jair Bolsonaro, became president.

Since then, Bolsonaro has launched an unprecedented attack on environmental protections, eliminating the post of secretary on climate change and stripping the environment ministry of authority.

Bolsonaro argues that the environmental protections in the Amazon hinder economic development and has promised that “not one more centimeter” of land would be allocated to indigenous tribes.

Such rhetoric has emboldened loggers, ranchers and big business interests eager to make money in the Amazon. Deforestation rose 88% in June compared to the same time last year, 169 new pesticides have been approved for use this year and the minister of mines and energy said the government was planning to allow mining in indigenous reserves.

But the vast majority of Brazil’s people live in cities, and for many of them, the assault on the rainforest is a distant reality, said Marcos Nisti, the co-creator of Aruanas.

“We want this show to make the environment a subject for the average family at the dinner table – to make it a more everyday topic for Brazilians,” he said. “This is not other people’s problem – it’s our problem. It’s a problem for all human existence.

“We want to enter people’s hearts … it’s not the normal way we get information about global warming, but it’s a way to connect with people,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Instead of a 160-episode novela on broadcast television, Aruanas is a modest 10-part series. Photograph: Fabio Rocha/Fabio Rocha/TVGlobo

The series follows three female activists who search to find out the truth behind the mining company, which is illegally prospecting for gold on protected land.

In one scene, an executive from the fictional company meets with lobbyists and ask them to remove the land’s protected reserve status – a common political favor granted by ruralistas — so that he can build a goldmine.

“The only people who like the rainforest are indigenous people and celebrities. The masses like money – and there will be plenty of money here,” he says, looking out over the mine.

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One of the activists confronts a politician, who responds: “We need to generate employment and develop the area.”

Such sentiments are often expressed by Bolsonaro and his allies, who bemoan the amount of land allocated to Brazil’s 1 million indigenous people and the activities of international NGOs.

“We consulted many environmental organizations and journalists and tried to make the show close to reality while always considering entertainment,” said co-director Estela Renner. Greenpeace served as consultants and gave lectures about their experience to the cast.

Despite its torn-from-the-headlines plot, Aruanas stays true to many of the principles of a telenovela melodrama: one of the activists is having an affair with her colleague’s husband, for example.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Taís Araújo (center): ‘Through TV drama it’s very easy to touch people’s hearts and show them we all need to care about this rainforest.’ Photograph: Fabio Rocha/Fabio Rocha/TVGlobo

“Brazilian telenovelas have a long tradition of discussing themes the country lives in its day-to-day and changing the way people think. Fiction has the power to sensitize in a way that doesn’t come from the newspapers, it comes from narratives,” said Maria Immacolata Vassallo de Lopes, the coordinator of the Center for the Studies of Telenovela at the University of São Paulo.

Globo, Brazil’s largest media company, reaches 100 million people a day (about half Brazil’s population), but is trying to compete with the ever-powerful streaming market.

Instead of a 160-episode novela on broadcast television, Aruanas is a modest 10-part series. Its first episode aired on Globo’s main TV channel, but the remaining episodes are only available through their streaming service.

TV dramas have long pushed the boundaries in Brazil: under strict censorship during the 1964 to 1985 military dictatorship, telenovelas used metaphors and parallels to rouse public criticism of the regime. More recently, novelas have featured gay relationships and transgender characters.

“This series is very intentional,” said Taís Araújo, who plays Aruanas’ protagonist. “Our goal is to take someone who has never thought about the Amazon and show them why it’s important to them. Through TV drama it’s very easy to touch people’s hearts and show them we all need to care about this rainforest.”