The remake of Renascer aired a long dialogue about the cocoa crisis in southern Bahia last week. José Venâncio (Rodrigo Simas) explains to his brother, the greedy José Bento (Marcello Melo Jr), that product prices are no longer the same as they used to be. But the business news decided against Globo's nine o'clock soap opera.
Bruno Luperi's series also featured a ship full of cocoa from Africa, brought by middlemen to reduce the price of local production. José Inocêncio (Marcos Palmeira) was one of the few farmers in the region who resisted, despite not having the wealth that José Bento expected.
Sometimes reality really plays tricks on productions that are openended like a soap opera. The screenwriter and his team are obviously based on a historical series in which Cocoa comes from successive declines and is actually significantly less profitable than in the 1993 version.
The scene in which José Venâncio and José Bento discuss the price of the commodity was also written and produced long before the future price of cocoa broke a record on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday (15). Contracts for product deliveries increased by 2.41% in March, reaching U$6,001 (R$29.7 thousand) per ton. The information comes from Valor Econômico.
If the same sequence were written based on the reality of the week it was shown, the ship carrying cocoa from Africa wouldn't be in Luperi's plans either. The crop in Ivory Coast, the world's largest producer, is facing serious problems due to climate change from which producers in Brazil, for example, are benefiting.
This question is, of course, more a question of curiosity about aspects of the open work than actually capable of influencing the direction of the story. Commodity news is virtually inaccessible to viewers as it is often limited to specialized channels.
Globo's own newscasts do not devote as much attention to the issue, other than those also aimed at rural producers. The price of fat cattle does not affect those who watch Jornal Nacional, but rather those who get up early on Sundays and come across Globo Rural.
Some subsidiaries even provide primetime data on commodities because they are located in regions where these products power the economy. Boa Noite Espírito Santo historically brings the price of coffee with it, as the state is one of the largest producers in the country.
Reality versus fiction
In other cases, reality even influences a soap opera, as in the first chapter of Morde & Assopra (2001). Walcyr Carrasco's series began with a major earthquake in Japan, just as the country was facing the aftermath of a real earthquake.
Since this type of news affects the average viewer, the solution to not throw away the story's prologue was to pay homage to the Japanese people. Paulo José (19372021) read a message from the team expressing solidarity with the reallife victims.
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