Biblical soapies boom

NEBUCHADNEZZAR II is about to be crowned in a sumptuous Babylonian palace, and production assistants in Havaiana flip-flops are rushing to get a small army of extras into place.

Welcome to the set of The Rich Man and Lazarus, the latest biblical telenovela from the media empire of one of Brazil’s largest evangelical megachurches.

The controversial founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Edir Macedo, has already scored two prime-time hits with soap operas based on the Bible – The Ten Commandments in 2015, and The Promised Land, currently on air.

Macedo, 71, is the owner of Brazil’s second-largest television network, TV Record, whose foray into telenovelas is reshaping prime-time in the giant South American country, where telenovelas are a national obsession.

They used to be strictly secular, with the dominant player, TV Globo – the country’s largest network – dealing with subjects such as gay couples and racial discrimination in its scripts.

But Macedo and TV Record saw an opening for a new kind of series in a country where evangelical Christianity is booming, steadily eroding the numbers of the world’s largest Catholic population.

Spending $230 000 (R3-million) per episode, the network has drawn viewers and advertisers with extravagant sets, costumes and, in the case of The Ten Commandments, action filmed partly on location in Israel.

The 150-episode Lazarus series “teaches certain tenets of ethical behaviour – people are tired of the aggression and ugliness of daily life”, actor Cassius Scapin said. – AFP