When i was growing up, i was big into telenovelas. Not soap operas, but telenovelas. To me there is actually a difference. To some, its all the same thing. This little brazilan drama had me glued to the cube for years while it aired. It's the story of Isaura, a slave girl, who is born into a world of slavery under the evil Senor Leoncio Correa De Almeida (i just love this guy) and her fight for freedom. One scene (towards the end of episode 26 i believe) has Leoncio lock up a bunch of slaves in a barn and torch the place..much to the dismay of poor lil' ol Isaura.
Now am sure you're thinking...where the hell am i supposed to find a telenovela? Well, believe it or not, if you live in the states, a little german film company (mostly distributing old german tv shows like Derrick) has put this baby out (unfortunately dubbed only) on DVD-R (bargh). I'm not sure if Brazil has an actual generic print of the series for sale. If you look hard enough, you just might stumble on another hidden gem. Don't sleep.