BACK TO CONTENTS ilmed in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, mini-series The Angel of Hamburg is based on the true story of Aracy de Carvalho, a Brazilian diplomatic clerk who saved hundreds of Jews in Germany during the Second World War.
It’s the first production to come out of a partnership between Brazilian broadcaster Globo and US studio Sony Pictures Television (SPT) to co-develop and coproduce Englishlanguage drama – and marks Globo’s first production to be entirely spoken in English, part
of a bid to tap into international demand for high-end scripted content. De Carvalho worked in the Brazilian consulate in Germany during the war, helping hundreds of Jews to emigrate to Brazil even though the country imposed rigid rules against their immigration. South American locations double up for Germany in the drama, which stars Sophie Charlotte as de Carvalho and Rodrigo Lombardi as her husband, the famed Brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa.
“Aracy is little known in Brazil or elsewhere for that matter, being mostly remembered as the wife of writer Guimarães Rosa,” says director Jayme Monjardim. In 1982, de Carvalho became one of the two Brazilians honoured by Yad Vashem with the Righteous Among the Nations award. The Angel of Hamburg was created and written by Mario Teixeira, in collaboration with British writer Rachel Anthony and is directed by Jayme Monjardim with Elisabetta Zenatti of SPT’s joint venture company Floresta serving as executive producer.
Images: Jayme Monjardim.
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