TV Globo, commonly known as Rede Globo, is Brazil’s largest network for TV entertainment and the world’s 4th largest network after their American competitors. Director Jayme Monjardim is one of Brazil’s most well-known directors who collaborated with LAbased Director of Photographer Affonso Beato, who just recently completed the cinematography for “Love in the Times of Cholera”. Claudia Braga is the company’s long-standing production manager for their TV series, which regularly draw more than 40 million people in front of the screen. The shows have been exported worldwide and are not unfamiliar with Israeli screens either; it came thus as no surprise that lead actor Thiago Lacerda was widely recognized on Israel’s streets and became the country’s object of affection during his 10 days stay.

Production manager and owner of Biblical Productions Sharon Schaveet, who was entrusted with the production services for this particularly challenging and demanding shoot, hired Israel’s best grip and gaffer crew to work alongside a number of field producers and production assistants, hair stylists and make-up artists, art directors and property assistants. Together with the Brazilian crew of 25 people, overall 50 staff was regularly on set to work on several different scenes and locations a day. Filming locations were mainly in Jerusalem; the Holy Sepulcher Church, Dominus Flevit Church, the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Jewish Wailing Wall and the Jewish Quarter, the American Colony and of course the Mount of Olives where the art directors built a café with the world’s most intriguing panorama. The crew also made their way down to the Dead Sea, where they shot a beautiful sunrise with gorgeous driving scenes with the backdrop of the Judean desert. One of their last locations was Yad Vashem, to which the crew had received one of the rare filming permissions, arranged by Sharon Schaveet.

The production was extremely demanding, yet the director’s crew left Israel happy and satisfied in the direction of Jordan to continue the shooting in Jordan’s Wadi Rum and Petra. This new telenovela “Viver a Vida” has been highly anticipated in Brazil and caused lots of media attention with journalists and government staff coming to set to interview the 4 main actors. Cast alongside Thiago Lacerda were Rodrigo Alberton, a Brazilian model, and aspiring actresses Thianna Bialli and Natasha Haydt. Biblical Productions and international producer Sharon Schaveet are happy and proud to have successfully completed such a prestigious project with an international crew of such caliber. We wish the Brazilian crew and their director Jayme Monjardim much success for the release of the show and look forward to seeing Israel’s greatest site on Brazilian screens.