São Paulo – The up and coming soap opera by the Globo television network, "Viver a Vida" (To Live the Life), will feature scenes shot in Jordan, an Arab country located in Middle East. Some of the main actors in the plot went to the Jordanian cities of Amman, Petra, Jerash and to the desert of Wadi Rum, from the beginning of this month until last week, to shoot some of the initial scenes in the soap opera. The production is scheduled to debut in September, when the soap opera currently showing, " Caminho das Índias" (Route to the Indies), should end. Some of the scenes in "Caminho das Índias" are also set in an Arab city: Dubai.
Besides Jordan, the team also shot scenes in Jerusalem, and is currently in Paris, France, along with director Jayme Monjardim, concluding the work abroad. In Jordan, one of the main locations was Petra, a city among the seven wonders of the world. Two of the main characters in "Viver a Vida," Helena and Bruno, played by Thiago Lacerda and Taís Araújo, meet each other in Petra. Bruno is a photographer who enjoys adventures and getting to know the world, and Helena is an international model. After meeting Helena in Petra, Bruno travels to Brazil looking for the woman.
In addition to the two actors, Globo took other actors to the trip. Rodrigo Hilbert, for example, plays Felipe, a friend of Bruno’s who is also fond of adventures. Bruno and Felipe appear in the Middle East accompanied by their girlfriends. "It is all so different from what we have in Brazil. Very beautiful," said actress Taís Araújo about Petra, in an interview to Globo TV, during the first days in Petra. “This place is awesome. There is no use in explaining, it takes coming come here to see it,” said Thiago.
In addition to Rodrigo Hilbert, Thiago Lacerda and Taís Araújo, actresses Natasha Haydt, Tianna Bialli, Alinne Moraes, and actor Marcelo Valle also travelled to the Middle East. The cast of the soap opera, however, includes other renowned Brazilian artists such as Giovanna Antonelli, Letícia Spiller, Bárbara Paz and José Mayer. Rookie Matheus Solano will be one of the protagonists. The author of the soap opera is Manoel Carlos, a writer who makes a point of choosing some of the actors to play his characters, as he writes with the artist that is going to play the character in mind.
Early this year, the director, Monjardim, travelled to the Middle East, as well as Europe, looking for locations for the soap opera. Petra, the Jordanian city where a large share of the footage was shot, attracts millions of tourists from around world and has been declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). In 2007, the city was elected as one of the new seven wonders of the world. The location has already provided the settings for the film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
