Paixões Proibidas

In 1805, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Simão and Teresa, children of families divided by hatred over the years, fall madly in love, but it is a forbidden passion, which does not have the blessing of parents and siblings, nor the support of society. Furthermore, the two will suffer from the schemes of Mariana, a false friend of Teresa who tries everything to separate the couple and stay with the boy. It is among the rebels, the slaves and the marginalized that Teresa and Simão will find support to fight for this love, experiencing tragedies and adventures.

Alberto de Miranda is a former privateer who made his wealth through piracy, returning to Brazil to lead a new life as a respected businessman and being fought over by Eugênia and Elisa. There is also the story of Father Dinis, a mysterious man with several identities, who devotes his life to helping young and wronged lovers, thus trying to clear the guilt of past mistakes. He also struggles with the love he feels for Antônia Valente, a woman who lives in search of her daughter, who was stolen as a child over twenty years before.

After the successful rerun of Mandacaru, originally shown on Rede Manchete, Grupo Bandeirantes de Comunicação (Band) decided to invest in a period telenovela featuring the same artifices: nudity, violence and an exquisite period production. In 2005 Ana Maria Moretzsohn negotiated the production of a telenovela on Band, where Herval Rossano ordered her a period plot involving the books Amor de Perdição, Mistérios de Lisboa e Livro Negro do Padre Dinis, which he had conceived. Ana Maria, however, planned an original contemporary plot and decided to sign with Rede Record, where she produced Luz do Sol, leaving Aimar Labaki in charge of adapting the text from Camilo Castelo Branco's works.^[2]

In February 2006, Herval broke his contract with Band due to dissatisfaction with working conditions, since he had promised a total restructuring of the network's drama unit with the acquisition of cutting-edge equipments and first-line set production, just like what he had promoted with Record two years earlier.^[3][4] With the existing sets and equipment at the network, without changes at the production area, the network continued producing the plot, inviting Ignácio Coqueiro as its director. Originally it was going to be called Amor de Perdição, later Amores Proibidos, before reaching its final title, Paixões Proibidas.

At the same time, the network signed a partnership with the Portuguese network Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) to coproduce it, including actors from both countries. Outdoor scenes were recorded at Sugarloaf Mountain, Guanabara Bay, historic locales such as the Carioca Aqueduct, Paço Imperial, the National Historical Museum, na Igreja da Glória and at a convent in the center of the state, as well as some locales in Portugal. After two months of production, Del Rangel became the co-director, as critics and the viewers thought it to be slow, making the plot more agile.^[5] After its end, the network auctioned off the costumes and scenographic accessories with the money going to Pestalozzi Hospital.^[6]