Existe em português
The year was 1985 when Dias Gomes, an important Brazilian playwright, was finally allowed to air his telenovela Roque Santeiro (Saint-Maker). Brazil had just emerged from a 21-year military dictatorship, during which the Institutional Act Number 5 (AI-5) had served as the regime’s most repressive tool. Enacted in 1968 in response to growing opposition - including a massive protest in Rio de Janeiro after the murder of a student by military police - AI-5 granted the government unchecked authority to censor music, film, theater, and television that was deemed subversive to political and moral values. Roque Santeiro had originally been scheduled to air in 1975, but just hours before its premiere, TV Globo received an order prohibiting the broadcast.
The telenovela was an adaptation of O Berço do Herói (The Hero’s Cradle), a play written by Dias Gomes in 1963 and banned under the dictatorship. The government’s justification for the censorship was that the show contained “offense to morality, public order, and good customs, as well as an affront to the Church.” However, the real reason became clear after authorities intercepted a recorded phone call between Gomes and historian Nelson Werneck Sodré. During the conversation, Gomes openly admitted, “I’m modifying some things, using some trickery so the censors won’t realize that it’s the same play!” The military had been monitoring Sodré’s phone, and the revelation confirmed their suspicions - Roque Santeiro was nothing more than a disguised version of O Berço do Herói. The show was immediately shut down.
That night, Jornal Nacional anchor Cid Moreira read an official statement from Globo’s president, Roberto Marinho, announcing the ban. It was a rare moment in which state censorship was explicitly acknowledged on air:
The soap opera Roque Santeiro will not be broadcast, due to a federal government decision that determined its suspension. Rede Globo, under obligation, complies with the order.
Behind the scenes, the network was thrown into chaos. Ten full episodes had already been filmed, with scenes for 30 more recorded1. Sets had been built, promotional material released, and millions of viewers were expecting the show’s debut. Globo, unprepared for the sudden cancellation, had to scramble. They first aired a condensed rerun of Selva de Pedra (1972) before rushing out Pecado Capital (1975)2, which, despite being produced under extreme time pressure and using some of the same set pieces as Roque Santeiro, ended up becoming a landmark in Brazilian television. The stress of the situation was so severe that Globo executive José Bonifácio de Oliveira Sobrinho (Boni) was briefly hospitalized with symptoms of a heart attack.
A group of 23 actors went to Brasília to protest the cancellation and deliver a letter to President Ernesto Geisel. After not being allowed in, the group’s leader Paulo Gracindo read a letter out loud, lamenting:
The country is experiencing a sad contradiction: while society modernizes, culture, as a result of an anachronistic and ruthless censorship code, is debilled, disfigured, and denationalized.
Roque Santeiro mirrored the military dictatorship's arc: censored as a play in 1965, banned as a telenovela in 1975, and aired in 1985 after the regime's fall. Its storyline makes it clear why the military regime found it dangerous. Set in the fictional town of Asa Branca in Brazil’s impoverished Northeast3, it follows the return of Roque, a man who had been presumed dead 18 years earlier and was worshipped as a saint. His supposed martyrdom had been exploited by local elites - the mayor, a powerful landowner, and the church - to control and profit off the town’s people. The novela became a landmark piece of television history, serving as a satire of the political and commercial exploitation of popular faith. When Roque reappears alive, his mere existence threatens to unravel their grip on power. The parallels to Brazil’s real political landscape were unmistakable: a hero returning to challenge the myths used to justify an unjust system. The regime had no interest in allowing millions of Brazilians to see such a message play out on their screens4.
When Roque Santeiro finally aired in 1985, it had to be completely reworked5 with a different cast, as the original version had been shelved. However, five actors from the censored version were given new roles in the remake, maintaining a link between the two productions. As Brazil transitioned to democracy, it became the most-watched program in the history of Brazilian television. By then, the censorship of the previous decade seemed almost absurd in retrospect. In a 1992 interview, Dias Gomes even laughed as he recalled how his attempt to outsmart the censors had backfired.
Now, as 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the original banned version, it’s worth reflecting on how much has really changed. What’s quite interesting is how, during the dictatorship, the government feared the power of television to shape public perception, yet today, in a democratic Brazil, there maybe isn’t enough discussion of how telenovelas influence their audiences. If Roque Santeiro had to be suppressed to prevent it from inspiring resistance, what narratives are being promoted now, and whose interests do they serve? Perhaps Brazil is still in need of a real-life Roque Santeiro to save the viewers.
In an interview from 1992 with Globo - a network that is still one of Brazil’s saint-makers of culture - Dias Gomes reaffirmed, “Brazil cannot live without myths”, a statement that resonates today as much as it did during the dictatorship.
Song by Djavan, art by J. Borges
Sources
1 - O dia em que Cid Moreira teve de anunciar veto da ditadura a novela ao vivo
2 - Roque Santeiro: Memória Globo
3 - Roque Santeiro completa 50 anos em 2025; veja imagens e curiosidades
4 - "Roque Santeiro" e a Ditadura Militar Brasileira em Três Atos: A Política por Trás das Telas
5 - Com novela das oito censurada, Globo exibiu reprise reeditada em 1975
some sources say 30 full episodes had actually been recorded, another said 36. Dias Gomes said 52 episodes had been written and 20 had been seen by the censors.
both novelas were from Gomes’ wife, Janet Clair
filmed in Guaratiba (Rio), it was modeled after Juazeiro do Norte (Ceará), Porto das Caixas (Rio), and Aparecida (São Paulo).
The Regime made handing over a full script a pre-condition to green-lighting future novelas