The Power of Desire (1999–2000)

Força de um Desejo (trans. Power of a Wish) tells the story of the romantic disencounters between the courtesan Ester Delamare and Inácio Sobral the baron's son, both respectively played by the stunningly beautiful and talented Malu Mader and Brazilian heartthrob and award winning actor Fábio Assunção.

Set in the 1850s, known as the coffee era, as coffee production boomed in colonial Brazil, the era is masterfully recreated with replicas of 1850s São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Ester Delamare (Malu Mader) owns the most famous brothel at Rio de Janeiro's court. Inácio (Fábio Assunção) is one of the heirs to the lands of the Baron Henrique Sobral (Reginado Faria), his father, a farmer in the region of the Vale do Paraíba, where the two farms of the story are located as well as the fictitious town of Villa de Sant'Anna. In the midst of the political and economical changes of the epoch, Ester and Inácio live a troubled romance as a result of the evil schemes by the villains of the story. Because of a misunderstanding, Ester marries Sobral, not knowing that he's the father of her greatest lover. Sobral also doesn't realize that the ex-courtesan is the ruler of his son't heart. These three characters set up the main amorous triangle on this show.

In a primarily romantic and epic drama the critically acclaimed author Gilberto Braga along with newcomer Alcides Nogueira create a wonderful story you'll won't want to miss. Directed by Mauro Mendonça Filho, a promising young director, the cast includes the infamous Malu Mader and Fábio Assunção and the award winning Natália Thimberg, Paulo Betti and Reginaldo Faria with the charismatic performances of Cláudia Abreu and Cláudio Corrêa e Castro along with the talented Isabel Fillardis and newcomer Ana Carbatti and the critically acclaimed performance of young actor Selton Mello (also starring O Auto da Compadecida).

This is without a doubt a dramatic Brazilian epic.