O Clone

O Clone ('The Clone'^[2]) is a Brazilian telenovela created by Glória Perez and directed by Jayme Monjardim. Produced and aired by Rede Globo, it was aired from 1 October 2001 to 15 June 2002, with 221 episodes. It also was an international success, selling in more than 90 countries.^[3]

It stars Giovanna Antonelli, Murilo Benício, Adriana Lessa, Juca de Oliveira, Eliane Giardini, Stênio Garcia, Letícia Sabatella, Antônio Calloni, Débora Falabella, Marcello Novaes, Dalton Vigh, Daniela Escobar, Reginaldo Faria and Vera Fischer.

Plot[]

In the early 1980s, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Jade (Giovanna Antonelli), a young Muslim girl, is orphaned when her mother dies and has to go to Morocco where her uncle Alí lives. The problem is that Jade was living in a country with a culture very different from that of an Islamic country. Thus, once she arrives in Morocco, she must learn all concomitant new traditions and customs, adjust to her new way of living, and face all the punishments she will be exposed to because of her conflicting personality and actions that go against her religion.

Back in Rio, a well-off family, the Ferraz, go to vacation in Morocco. Twin brothers Lucas and Diogo Ferraz (Murilo Benício), along with Leônidas (Reginaldo Faria), their father, and doctor Augusto Albieri (Juca de Oliveira), friend of the family and the twins Godfather who is a genetic scientist, visit Alí, a friend of Albieri's. There, Lucas and Jade meet for the first time, and they fall in love at first sight. Jade, knowing it's haraam (a sin) to love Lucas, decides to forgo her religious mandates for the sake of love, which prohibit her from marrying a non-Muslim person. Meanwhile, in Rio, Diogo tragically dies in a helicopter crash. Both Lucas and Leônidas are devastated by the news and Lucas' plans of running away with Jade are subsequently ruined. Albieri, his godparent, is shattered and becomes deeply despondent. He never recovered fully from the death of his fiancée, and Diogo's death reinvigorates his distress.

In an effort to change the natural course of events, Albieri in his despair resolves to utilize Lucas' cell in order to make the first human clone. Deusa (Adriana Lessa), a low-middle class woman who has not been able to get pregnant, is subsequently inseminated with Lucas' cell, and as a result gives birth to a baby, not knowing that it is a clone. Léo is born without complications, but Albieri wants to stay close to Léo and watch him grow up. Léo gradually becomes attached to Albieri, thus making Deusa uneasy.

Several years have passed since Léo was born. Now, Jade is married to Saíd (Dalton Vigh) and she's a mother of a little child, Khadija (Carla Diaz). She lives happily with her new family and is even starting to love Saíd. However, due to Said's insecurities a new encounter with Lucas is forced upon her to test Jade's love for him, with this encounter the old passion revives, but they're not the young lovers they once were and now they have new lives and new responsibilities. Lucas, who also is married, to Maysa (Daniela Escobar) and with a daughter, Mel (Débora Falabella) doesn't know he had been cloned 20 years before. Albieri had kept this a secret from everybody's knowledge and is trying to make it so that Léo and Lucas never meet and thus find out the truth. The last thing Albieri knew from Léo is that he and Deusa went to the north of Brazil, but with the return of both, Léo has become a young, handsome man, and the living image of the young Lucas whom Jade met in Morocco. The appearance of Leo in Brazil and his later travels to Morocco will change the life of all the characters forever.

Syndication[]

O Clone aired in Brazil comprising 221 episodes, of variable duration. However, when syndicated and sold to other countries the telenovela got the number of episodes enlarged to 250 and the duration fixed at 45 minutes. O Clone was a big hit, being aired in several countries all around the world. It was dubbed in several languages, with the Spanish version airing in the United States by Telemundo. There are also a few differences between the Brazilian soundtrack version and the syndicated one; some music was changed in order to make the people feel more identified, many Portuguese songs were changed to Hispanic American music when it aired to the Hispanics in the United States. See Soundtrack to see the list of music featured in the telenovela. Also, the Brazilian opening features the song "Sob o Sol" by Sagrado Coração da Terra, and the syndicated opening features the same video, but the music is replaced by "Maktub" by Marcus Viana.

Cast[]

• 

  Murilo Benício as Lucas, Diogo and the clone Léo.

• 

  Giovanna Antonelli as Jade Rachid.

• 

  Vera Fischer as Yvete.

• 

  Adriana Lessa as Deusa.

• 

  Stênio Garcia as Ali.

• 

  Daniela Escobar as Maysa.

• 

  Dalton Vigh as Said.

• 

  Marcello Novaes as Xande.

• 

  as Escobar.

• 

  Juliana Paes as Karla.

• 

  as Laurinda.

• 

  Sérgio Marone as Cecéu.

• 

  as Tavinho.

• 

  Débora Falabella as Mel Ferraz.

• 

  Thiago Fragoso as Nando.

• 

  Nívea Maria as Edna.

• 

  Francisco Cuoco as Padre Matiolli.

Portrayal of Muslims[]

While the telenovela's attention to issues of drug addiction won its creator an award, the portrayal of Arab-Muslim cultures has brought a critical response from different Arab-Muslim sources, according to a 2005 doctoral dissertation written about the program by Elizabeth Barbosa.^[4]

The part of the telenovela dealing with Islamic customs and attitudes mixes traditions from diverse countries, rather than those of Morocco alone, and has been criticised for its inaccurate representation of these traditions, according to Barbosa. These criticisms include the portrayal of polygamy as commonly accepted in Morocco, women as rarely working outside the home or pursuing an advanced education, and women having only unimportant roles within the family. Critics making these judgments included sheik Abdelmalek Cherkaoui Ghazouani, the Moroccan ambassador to Brazil, who considered the high profile of these representations to merit his posting his criticisms directly on his embassy's website as part of a bulletin board.^{[citation needed]}

Reception[]

Ratings[]

In its premiere, O Cloneregistered a viewership rating of 47 points, peaking at 53 points.^[5]

Its ever lowest recorded data in terms of viewership was on the New Year's Eve of 31 December 2001.

On the episode of the first between Lucas and his clone registered 56 points and 63 points peak, with 73% audience share.^[8]

In its finale, O Clone registered a viewership rating of 62 points peaking at 68 and 77% audience share.^[6]

O Clone registered a mean viewership rating of 47 points.^[7]

Remake[]

In January 2010, a remake in Spanish started to be recorded in Colombia. This remake is a production of Rede Globo and Telemundo and it was titled El Clon.^[9]

International broadcasts[]

Country	Local Title	TV network(s)	Airdate	Weekly Schedule	Timeslot
Albania	Kloni	Top Channel	2004 - 2005	Monday to Friday	22:15
Argentina	El Clon	Canal 13 / Magazine	2002-2003	Monday to Friday	19:00 21:00 and 14:30 (Replays)
Armenia	Կլոն	Armenia TV	2002-2003
Azerbaijan	Klon	Lider TV	2003-2004
Belarus	Клон
Bolivia		Unitel
Bosnia and Herzegovina		TVSA
Bulgaria	Клонинг	Nova Television
Canada	O Clone	Omni Television	2003	Monday to Friday	16:00
Chile	El Clon	Canal 13	2002-2003	Monday to Friday	14:30
			2015	Monday to Friday	16:00
		La Red	2005-2006	Monday to Friday	21:00
Colombia	El Clon	Caracol TV
Costa Rica	El Clon	Teletica
Croatia		RTL Televizija
Dominican Republic	El Clon	Tele Antillas
Ecuador	El Clon	Ecuavisa	2003	Monday to Friday	20:45
Spain	El Clon	Televisión Canaria
France	Le Clone	France Ô
Georgia	კლონი	Imedi TV
Hungary		Zone Romantica
Israel	האחד	Viva
Kosovo	Kloni	RTV21
Lebanon	Jade	LBC
Mexico	El Clon	TV Azteca
Nicaragua		Televicentro
North Macedonia	Клон	A1 TV
Panama		Telemetro
Peru		ATV	2003-2004
Poland		Zone Romantica
Portugal		SIC RTP Internacional
Puerto Rico		Telemundo Puerto Rico
Paraguay	El Clon	SNT Cerro Corá / Paravisión / Unicanal	2002-2003 2007-2008 2009	Monday to Friday Saturday and Sunday	21:00 20:00 07:00
Romania	Clona	Acasă TV Happy TV
Russia	Клон	Channel One / Domashny
Serbia	Забрањена љубав / Zabranjena ljubav (English: Forbidden Love)	BK / TV Košava
Slovenia	Klon	POP TV
Tunisia		Nessma TV
Turkey	Aşkın Peşinde	FOX TV
Ukraine	Клон	1+1 / Ukrayina TV	29.11.2004-02.12.2005 / 2006-2007	Monday to Friday (1+1)	18:30 (1+1), some time was 17:50 (1+1)
United States	El Clon	Telemundo / Mun2
Uruguay	El Clon	Teledoce /	2003 2013	Monday to Friday	19:00 22:00
Uzbekistan	Klon
Venezuela		Televen

References[]

External links[]

• O Clone at IMDb
• oclone.net
• theclon.narod.ru