SCENIC CITY

Between late May and early June, a team of about 60 people disembarked in Piranhas, the Alagoan city that has become a setting. In recent years, there have been many productions, such as “Baile Perfumado,” “Entre irmãs,” “Rio Cigano,” “Cordel Encantado,” and “Velho Chico.” This time, the mission was to film scenes from “Mar do Sertão,” the new soap opera from TV Globo. Directed by Pedro Brenelli, the caravan passed through Vale do Catimbau, in Pernambuco, the secondlargest archaeological park in Brazil. In the plot, the hinterland becomes much more than just scenery, gaining unprecedented prominence by housing a fun contemporary fable with the love triangle formed by Candoca (Isadora Cruz), Zé Paulino (Sérgio Guizé), and Tertulinho (Renato Góes). The fight for the most precious asset in the region permeates the entire plot: the water from Velho Chico.

“Our soap opera portrays the hinterland as it is: a joyful and colorful place. We want to show the Northeast that goes beyond aridity. We want to rescue the joy of forró and the vivacity of the mandacaru flower,” said Mário Teixeira, the author of “Mar do Sertão.” For artistic director Allan Fiterman, the idea is to enchant the audience: “We made the most of the days we spent in the Northeastern hinterland to capture the best and most beautiful images of the region. I’m trying to bring poetry to the image of the soap opera.”

The journey began in Vale do Catimbau. Located between the Agreste and the Pernambuco hinterland, the valley has several archaeological sites, caves, prehistoric cemeteries, and cave paintings that are over six thousand years old. The work continued for another week in Piranhas, where scenes of the exuberance of São Francisco were filmed, as well as the colors and joy of the city of approximately 25,000 inhabitants, whose historic center served as inspiration for the creation of Canta Pedra, the fictional city where the story of “Mar do Sertão” takes place. According to the script, Canta Pedra was once a sea and became a hinterland. The prophecy of Antônio Conselheiro that the hinterland will become a sea fuels the population’s hope. For a long time, the people of Canta Pedra have been waiting for rain, facing the difficulties imposed by drought.

One of the challenges faced by the production teams of “Mar do Sertão” was to return to Rio de Janeiro, bringing to Globo Studios the essence of what was captured in Pernambuco and Alagoas. “We absorbed a lot of what we saw during our trip to the Northeast. Our story is a fable, which gives us a certain freedom of creation, but we did not want to lose the characteristics of Northeastern culture. We went to Recife and Olinda, to markets and workshops, in search of material, and we paid attention to the details and customs, to how that universe works,” said Flávia Cristófaro, responsible for the art production of the soap opera. “We brought samples of soil as a reference for the construction of our scenarios,” complemented set designer Paulo Renato.

Real life

For Ranieri Davisson, a young tour guide from Piranhas, the big productions that land in the city have become a source of income. As he knows every inch of that land, he is the one who helps to find the perfect locations for each script. The next production is already underway, with legendary director Cacá Diegues filming “God is Still Brazilian.” In “Mar do Sertão,” Ranieri started working at the beginning of the year: “I was approached by the location producer from Recife (PE), João Miguel. He was informed that I had already worked on some locations, and then we started working where I took the production to the ideal locations with the scenarios they were looking for,” he commented.

One of the main locations was the Nossa Bodega bar, in the historic center of Piranhas, which housed the house of the character Daomé (Wilson Rabelo), Zé Paulino’s (Sérgio Guizé) father. With colonial architecture from the 19th century, the small, simple blue house had already been the home of Dona Zidinha and is now a bar decorated with many vintage items, such as a couscous steamer, candy dish, lamps, pots, mugs, and the colorful Sertanejo. The owner, Fabiana Amorim, Dona Zidinha’s granddaughter, turned the space into a bar in 2018. “My idea with the bar is not to be a big business, but to be with my people,” said Fabiana. “The production of ‘Mar do Sertão’ filmed scenes without changing the decoration.”

It was a great pleasure to receive the actors and an honor to have our location seen nationally. We are happy about the attention we are receiving.

With the premiere of ‘Mar do Sertão’, Nossa Bodega has become a tourist attraction,” according to Fabiana. “Tourists pass by and recognize the house, take pictures, and want to know the details of the filming.”

Maciel Oliveira, President of the São Francisco Hydrographic Basin Committee, also celebrates the visibility that the soap opera “Mar do Sertão” brought to the city and, above all, to the cause of preserving the Velho Chico. “Showing the river, the people of the Sertão, the Caatinga, the culture of our people, the natural beauty of the region, the history, everything is a source of pride,” he commented. “It is also very important in terms of valuing the Northeast. This time, many actors are from the region. Through the soap opera and its characters, the charms of the Velho Chico are being shown in their essence. It is a soap opera with roots that spreads a little bit of the Sertão to the world. With this, I hope that Brazilians from other regions recognize the traditional culture of the Brazilian semiarid, as well as the culture of the Northeasterners.”

Farmer Kelinho Vaqueiro even acted in “Mar do Sertão”. “I helped in the production by lending some animals. On the day of the filming, I ended up making a cameo,” he said. “I was surprised and, at the same time, happy. It was too rewarding. I believe that in this experience, both gained: me, the experience; and they, having a resident as a character, bringing the way of speaking and acting.” For Kelinho Vaqueiro, fame followed: “When I pass by on the street, they say, ‘look, the artist’.”

By Karla Monteiro