Torre de Babel (English: Tower of Babel) is a Brazilian primetime telenovela produced by TV Globo and broadcast in its traditional schedule of 9 p.m. between May 25, 1998 and January 16, 1999.
Starring Tarcísio Meira, Glória Menezes, Cláudia Raia, Edson Celulari, Letícia Sabatella, Marcos Palmeira, Adriana Esteves, Juca de Oliveira, Natália do Vale, Maitê Proença and Tony Ramos in the lead roles.
History
Synopsis
First phase
The former expert in fireworks, José Clementino gets a job as a bricklayer in the construction of a magnificent shopping center, one of the many works carried out by the construction engineer, César Toledo. During the feast of the ridge, where engineers and workers gather to celebrate the laying of the slab work, Clementino's wife flirts with several men. At one point, José Clementino goes looking for his wife and finds her in a far corner of the building having sex with two men. Overcome with rage, Clementino kills his wife and one of the men with paddle strokes. The family hears the screams and Toledo contains Clementino, with the help of a group of workers. Shocked by the violence of the employee, the employer calls the police, and later earns an indictment against him at trial. His testimony is crucial to the eventual conviction of Clementino.
Second phase
Twenty years pass, and in 1998 José Clementino is freed from jail. The time during which he was exposed to the harsh reality of the prison system made him a man even more bitter. He is rejected by most people around him, including his own relatives, because of the double stigma of being an ex-convict and unemployed. Although he tries to rebuild his life, Clementino remains obsessed by the desire to seek revenge against César Toledo, whom he deems largely responsible for his conviction.
César Toledo has become a powerful businessman, but leads a life full of troubles. His marriage to Martha is in crisis and can only be sustained thanks to her efforts. Their union takes a turn for the worse when César finds an old love, the lawyer Lucia Prado, and the two begin a romance. On top of that Martha is still dealing with the trauma of her father's death and even begins to develop suspicions that César might have been involved in the car accident which led to that death.
César and Martha's relationship with their children is also characterized by tensions. The eldest, Henrique, administers the affairs of the mall, but has a very different temperament from his father. Extravagant and vain, he welcomes the inauguration of the Tropical Towers by organizing a pompous carnival event. Alexandre is the middle child of the Toledo family. A young law student who resents still being dependent on financial help from his father, he wishes to complete his studies before leaving home. The youngest son, Guilherme, is the main source of the torments of the family. A drug addict and social outcast, he keeps fleeing from rehab clinics and trying to extort money from relatives and friends to support his habit. During the inauguration of the mall, after trying to get money without success, he breaks into the main lobby of the building with a motorbike and has to be restrained by security guards. Guilherme later gets arrested for the homicide of a drug trafficker to whom he owed a lot of money and in spite of the help provided from his family to have him released from jail, he eventually dies a tragic death.
Following the liberation of José Clementino from jail, he and his family work and live in the junkyard of his father, Agenor, a cruel and violent man who physically and psychologically tortures his children and grand-children. There live Clementino's two half-brothers, Gustinho and Boneca, as well as Shirley, his youngest daughter, a sweet and gracious young woman who suffers from a physical defect in the leg. She takes care of Jamanta, a person with mental disability who lives with the family and works in the junkyard with her uncles, managing a diner that prepares meals for blue collar workers. In that cold and lifeless environment, there are some of the best comedic moments of the telenovela, thanks to the interaction of Gustinho and Boneca - making fun of and engaging with one another - and the intricacies of Jamanta, a character who fell into the graces of the public. Much to Clementino's annoyance, his two half-brothers regularly get into brawls and fights.