O Clone

O Clone
Genre	Telenovela Romantic drama Science fiction
Created by	Glória Perez
Written by	Glória Perez
Directed by	Teresa Lampreia Marcelo Travesso Mário Márcio Bandarra Marcos Schechtman Jayme Monjardim
Starring	Murilo Benício Giovanna Antonelli Juca de Oliveira Stênio Garcia Reginaldo Faria Vera Fischer Dalton Vigh Daniela Escobar Adriana Lessa Nívea Maria Antônio Calloni Letícia Sabatella Eliane Giardini Jandira Martini Débora Falabella
Opening theme	"Sob o Sol" by Sagrado Coração da Terra
Composer	Marcus Viana
Country of origin	Brazil
Original languages	Portuguese Arabic
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	221
Production
Production locations	Rio de Janeiro Morocco
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30–74 minutes
Original release
Network	Rede Globo
Release	1 October 2001 (2001-10-01) – 14 June 2002 (2002-06-14)
Related
El clon (2010)

O Clone (English: The Clone) 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 13 June 2002, with 221 episodes. It also was an international success, selling in 93 countries.

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

Actor	Character
Murilo Benício	Lucas Ferraz
	Diogo Ferraz
	Edvaldo Leandro Moura da Silva (Léo)
Giovanna Antonelli	Jade Rachid
Vera Fischer	Yvete Simas Ferraz
Reginaldo Faria	Leônidas Ferraz (Leãozinho)
Juca de Oliveira	Augusto Albieri
Adriana Lessa	Deusa da Silva
Dalton Vigh	Said Rachid
Daniela Escobar	Maysa Ferraz
Stênio Garcia	Ali El Adib
Eliane Giardini	Nazira Rachid
Letícia Sabatella	Latiffa El Adib Rachid
Antônio Calloni	Mohamed Rachid
Jandira Martini	Zoraide
Nívea Maria	Edna Albieri
Cristiana Oliveira	Alice Maria Ferreira das Neves (Alicinha)
Débora Falabella/Cynthia Falabella	Melissa Ferraz (Mel)
Marcello Novaes	Alexandre Cordeiro (Xande)
Solange Couto	Jurema Cordeiro (Dona Jura)
Osmar Prado	Lobato
Cissa Guimarães	Clarisse
Marcos Frota	Escobar
Neusa Borges	Dalva
Ruth de Souza	Dona Mocinha da Silva
Victor Fasano	Otávio Valverde (Tavinho)
Beth Goulart	Lidiane Valverde
Luciano Szafir	Zein
Nívea Stelmann	Ranya Rachid
Thiago Fragoso	Nando Escobar
Sthefany Brito	Samira El Adib Rachid
Thaís Fersoza	Telma Valverde (Telminha)
Sérgio Marone	Maurício Valverde (Cecéu)
Elizângela	Noêmia
Viviane Victorette	Regina da Costa (Regininha)
Raul Gazolla	Miro
Françoise Forton	Simone
Juliana Paes	Karla
Mara Manzan	Odete
Roberto Bonfim	Edvaldo
Carla Diaz	Khadija Rachid
Perry Salles	Mustafá Rachid
Sebastião Vasconcellos	Tio Abdul Rachid
Thiago Oliveira	Amin El Adib Rachid
Carolina Macieira	Sumaya Rachid
Totia Meireles	Laurinda Albuquerque
Guilherme Karan	Raposão
Eri Johnson	Ligeirinho
Myrian Rios	Anita
Murilo Grossi	Júlio
Thalma de Freitas	Carol
Marcelo Brou	Pitoco
Léa Garcia	Lola da Silva
Francisco Cuoco	Padre Matiolli
Tânia Alves	Norma
Sílvio Guindane	Basílio
Christiana Kalache	Aninha
Maria João Bastos	Amália
Jayme Periard	Rogê
Antônio Pitanga	Tião
Ingra Liberato	Amina
Michelle Franco	Michelle
Milena Paula	Milena
Eduardo Martini	Cotia
Eduardo Canuto	Gasolina
Luá Ubacker	Duda
Aimée Ubacker	Aimée
Andressa Koetz	Soninha

• 
  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.
• 
  Marcos Frota as Escobar.
• 
  Juliana Paes as Karla.
• 
  Totia Meireles as Laurinda.
• 
  Sérgio Marone as Cecéu.
• 
  Victor Fasano 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.

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.

Reception

Ratings

Timeslot	# Eps.	Premiere		Finale		Position	TV season	Average viewership
		Date	Viewers (in points)	Date	Viewers (in points)
Monday—Saturday 20:35	221	1 October 2001	47	14 June 2002	62	#1	2001 - 2002	47

In its premiere, O Clone registered a viewership rating of 47 points, peaking at 53 points.

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.

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

O Clone registered a mean viewership rating of 47 points.

Remake

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

External links

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