# Escrava Isaura (1976)

> A light-skinned enslaved woman raised as a lady resists her cruel master's obsession while fleeing across 19th-century Brazil toward freedom and love.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/5315

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 100
- Episode runtime: 36 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, romance
- Created by: Gilberto Braga
- Network: TV Globo
- Cast: Lucélia Santos, Rubens de Falco, Edwin Luisi, Roberto Pirillo, Norma Blum, Gilberto Martinho, Beatriz Lyra, Átila Iório
- TMDB rating: 6.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142036/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: melodramatic, romantic, melancholic, suspenseful, earnest

## What critics say

Audiences remember it as a landmark Brazilian telenovela with a strong romantic and abolitionist story, though reception data here is thin.

## Synopsis

Isaura: Slave Girl (1976-1977) is a Brazilian telenovela created by Gilberto Braga for TV Globo, a single season of one hundred episodes. Lucélia Santos plays Isaura, a white-skinned enslaved woman educated like a noble lady, who must protect her dignity against Rubens de Falco as Leôncio, the cruel plantation heir obsessed with possessing her. Edwin Luisi plays Álvaro, a wealthy principled abolitionist who becomes her ally and suitor, while Átila Iório appears as her father Miguel, who helps her escape. The engine of the series is a chase and a moral standoff: Isaura resists seduction and domination, flees to Recife under a new identity, and must keep ahead of a pursuer who will not let go. Each episode is built from confrontations, disguises, and romantic intrigue, playing out as a long serialized soap. Set in the waning years of slavery in 19th-century Brazil, it blends melodrama with an abolitionist conscience, a tone of earnest suffering and hope. Its tone is melancholic yet romantic, with themes of justice, love, and resistance. Fans of Roots and Gone with the Wind will find resonance in its sweeping social melodrama and its defiant heroine.

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