The Globoplay original ‘Aruanas’, a co-production between Globo and Maria Farinha Filmes, was highlighted at Content London, a conference in London that gathers the most important players in the global entertainment industry.
In a crowded auditorium, Monica Albuquerque, head of Development at Globo, and Estela Renner, co-author and director of ‘Aruanas’ and founder of Maria Farinha Filmes, presented the case with the international launch of the series, that tells the story of three friends: Natalie (Débora Falabella), Luiza (Leandra Leal) and Verônica (Taís Araújo). Alongside Clara (Thainá Duarte), they decide to defend the environment together and found the NGO Aruana – an indigenous name that means “sentinel”.
“In Globo, we believe that the melodramatic structure is a good way to connect with the audience and approach more complex topics. We just won the Rose D’Or Awards with a story about refugees. In ‘Aruanas’, the characters are ordinary people, with their sorrows, joys and conflicts. At the end of the day, we are talking about people. So, this type of message makes people believe they can do the same, it becomes easier to connect with the audience”, says Albuquerque.
Freely inspired by true events, ‘Aruanas’ approaches an extremely relevant and current topic: the need to preserve the Amazon forest and local communities, and the importance of activists in this context. With 10 episodes, the scenario for the series is the Amazon, and it makes a link with the global challenges related to forests and climate. “For decades, we have faced the indigenous genocide, high deforestation rates, the contamination of rivers, so this topic needed to be approached”, said Renner.
Besides the main theme, in ‘Aruanas’ sustainability also permeated the whole production: the series reused 90% of the costumes, recycling second-hand clothes and generating less production of waste. Also, 33.8% of the production team were women, in an attempt to value female empowerment.
Beside Mônica and Estela, the director of the Group of Human Rights Defenders at Amnesty International, Guadalupe Marengo, and the communications director of Environmental Governance at the UN Environment Programme, Niamh Brannigan, highlighted the importance of the series and the relevance of the topic. “It is very important that the entertainment industry gets on board the human rights cause”, concluded Marengo.