“ARUANAS” PREMIERES ON TV GLOBO AFTER LAUNCHING IN OVER 150 COUNTRIES

Four women who are part of an NGO risk their lives investigating a gang who commits environmental crimes in Amazonia. This is the plot of ‘Aruanas’, the original Globoplay series launched in 2019 at the direct-to-consumer platform aruanas.tv, reaching 150 countries in 11 languages. It premiered on open TV, in Brazil, this Tuesday (28), on late prime time. In Brazil, the 10 episodes will be broadcast weekly, and the premiere reached 34,9 million viewers. In this same week, the series was also made available for Brazilians and Portuguese speakers who watch Globo on its international channels. Applauded by representatives of international organizations which are reference for the Environment and Human Rights, the co-production between the channel and Maria Farinha Filmes already guaranteed its second season, and it was recently licensed for OTT platforms in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Luxemburg and Switzerland.

"The series ‘Aruanas’ is an urgent production whose purpose was reinforced throughout its entire creation and production, with female protagonism showcased in the series and behind the scenes, combining state-of-the-art technology, human resources and respect to the environment in its production”, states Marcos Nisti, one of the authors of "Aruanas".

In the story, Luíza (Leandra Leal, from ‘Sparkling Girls’), Natalie (Debora Falabella, from ‘Brazil Avenue’), Verônica (Taís Araújo, from ‘Shades of Sin’) and the young woman Clara (Thainá Duarte, from ‘If I Close My Eyes Now’) take the responsibility of investigating the suspicious activities of a mining company that works in the fictitious town of Cari, in Amazonia. There, mysterious and worrying facts happen: people feeling sick for no apparent reason, murders and threats to native tribes, and anonymous distress calls. The signs that something is wrong are more than enough to draw the attention of the activists, who follow their own intuition and conduct their own investigation, putting the puzzle together and discovering a big scheme of environmental crimes, involving illegal mining operations and an important national mining company led by Miguel (Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos, from ‘Above Justice’). Besides their hard work, Luíza, Natalie, Verônica and Clara also carry the problems and dramas of their personal lives, which are often intertwined by the events that take place in their professions.

Written by Estela Renner and Marcos Nisti, the environmental thriller brings adventure, suspense and debate on the preservation of biodiversity, in episodes shot in the region of the Amazon rainforest and in the city of São Paulo. The series has the artistic direction of Carlos Manga Jr, the general direction of Estela Renner, the technical partnership of Greenpeace, and Pedro de Barros, as a collaborator on the script.

“Besides bringing drama, entertainment and large-scale fictional work, we have a strong wish this series could inspire each one of us to make an activist gesture. We have a certain urgency in stopping global warming”, states Estela Renner. “I think it is extremely necessary for us to use dramaturgy to approach pressing issues that dialog directly with our survival”, adds Carlos Manga Jr. The artistic director also says one of the biggest challenges for the series’ production was trying to be faithful while talking about people who risk their lives.

The series also had the support of some of the largest and most important human rights and environmental social organizations in the world, such as Amnesty International, WWF-Brazil, Global Witness, UN Environment, UN Women, Open Society Foundations, Instituto Betty & Jacob Lafer, Rainforest Foundation, 350.org, Instituto Socioambiental, IPAM, SOS Mata Atlântica, IMAZON, Conectas, Global Justice, ISER, Greenfaith and APIB.