Passport to Freedom

Aracy Moebius de Carvalho (1908 - 2011) was a Brazilian diplomatic clerk who from 1938 through 1942 worked at the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg, Germany, as Chief of the Passport Section. She helped Jews by handng out visas without the red "Juden" letter that identified them. Her fellow diplomat and assistant-Consul Guimarães Rosa later become her second husband, and certainly the most important Brazilian writer since Machado de Assis. His masterpiece 'The Devil to Pay in the Backlands' (Grande Sertão: Veredas) was dedicated to her. With his help, she saved a great number of Jews from prison and death. The Holocaust, as we know, was a very long epic event, so this TV series presents , in a pictoric soft-focus manner, a side of the tragedy, a touching story, and a must see not only for the plot but also for not ignoring Evil. It's less a production about Jews than about a courageous woman who saves innocent people. Less about racialism than about the science to be yourself in dark periods. A series for reflectioning, for not ignoing the past. The vulnerability of society face to evil. At the very end of each chapter, as it switches into the present now, we see relatiuves of survivors, the Carvalho Jews: their offspring and the idea of how Aracy did not only save those people, but saved generations and future children. Each finale with real-life "Carvalho Jews" honoring their heroine is awe inspiring, certainly what you may call triumph over tragedy. There are several caveats to counteract, however. If Sophie Charlotte is passable in the role of Carvalho, Rodrigo Lombardi is too inexpressive an actor, even somewhat too old for the role of Guimarães Rosa. The sequence in which she drives a car transporting an underground Jew out of Germany is ridiculous: the fugitive is in the backseat of the car, she DOES NOT HAVE diplomatic immunity and the Nazi customs officers merely ask her to open the trunk, they don't even look or supervise the backseat... Come on...

On first viewing, I thought it was an American production. All the (Brazilian) actors speak in English and do not try to put on Brazilian or German accents for verisimilitude.

The sets are amazing, as standing-in for Hamburg in 1938-1942. Plus the casual anti-Jewish actions and brutality on the streets, almost (but not quite) incidental to the action. But demonstrating how casual that physical cruelty can be.

While others have decried some of the incidental matters (like American cars on the streets and badges of ranks), the dialogue is subtle and develops the plot(s) very well.

It's a story that needs to be told - from a source about which western history is too often ignorant. Brazil was the only South American country to commit forces to WW2 - 25,900 "Smoking Snakes" to Italy.

This was a good series; it has good acting and a great and important storyline.

However others have mentioned the inconsistencies in the sets (cars, cigarettes, uniforms) but what we were amused by, is one scene where they are crossing a gate where there were German soldiers with a tall building in the background that had long red hanging pieces of material with a swastika on each one. The swastikas were backwards!

Otherwise it was good series, well done, good characters. It is an important story regarding the history of WW2. Watching movies like this get you wondering where we are heading in this world now, and if history will repeat itself (more or less).

Would any of your readers know the theme music at the begining of the drama, It sounds to me like Samuel Barber's adagio for strings but it is not played long for me to tell.

This might not be as accurate as a lot of people would like but this is an amazing series about an amazing woman in a really difficult situation highly recommend give it a chance do what I did & ignore the negative reviews this was a great watch, it has been slated because it's a story that not everyone enjoys because of what it covers & yes she might of only saved a few families from persecution but she was only doing it for a year & was in a very difficult position.

Like I've said these type stories & historical biographies have been told a lot but this is a story I hadn't heard of & thoroughly enjoyed watching.