São Paulo – At 18, the young Saladin leaves his home in Damascus, accompanied by his best friend, Tarik, in search of great adventures. With great courage, he lives stories full of action, heroes, villains and a dash of romance. This is the synopsis of the animated series Saladin, based on the life of the 12th century Kurdish warrior, which Brazilian children may follow from July 7th on, on channel Futura.
"Futura always seeks content that is not broadcast on other channels and, for a long time, we have been looking for content that could bring to children a view of the Middle East. We tried to find content that would contribute to the construction of imagery of the Middle East itself, "said João Alegria, Programming, Journalism and Engineering manager at the channel.
The series was produced by Al Jazeera TV, from Qatar, which has a channel solely for children’s programmes. To dub the series into Portuguese, Futura set up a team of seven professionals. Two seasons of the series will be aired, in a total of 26 30-minute episodes. The stories told in the cartoon are fictitious, created based on the life of the Muslim hero.
"It is an initiative to bring a cultural variant," says Alegria, about the Arab series. "Cartoons have universal narrative aspects. There was a concern to create the series in a way that it could be watched around the world," he explains.
According to the executive, the series is geared towards children from ages 8-12. "It is a story of adventure and tells the story of a different culture and way of life. At school, little history of Africa and the Near East is studied. The series has a cultural and educational concern, and expands the vision [of children] that there are different civilizations, "he adds.
Salah Al-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub, known as Saladin in the West, was born in 1137, in Tikrit, in present day Iraq. Born into a Kurdish family, Saladin was the founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty, ruling a territory that covered what, nowadays, corresponds to Egypt, Palestine, Yemen and Syria. He was one of the greatest Muslim heroes in history, having fought the Christians in the Crusades and having dominated the city of Jerusalem in 1187.
Service
Saladin
From July 7th on, broadcast by Futura channel
Time: 5:00 pm on Sundays, with repeats on Wednesdays at 2:00 pm and Fridays at 12:00 pm.
The frequencies at which you may tune into Futura may be found at http://migre.me/f6OT7
*Translated by Mark Ament
