Joseph from Egypt (2013) User Reviews

A wonderful mini series!

[flaglady15 · 10/10 · 14 October 2017]

This excellent mini series has obsessed me since I discovered it on one of the UK's lesser known channels earlier this year (2017). I recorded all I could of it which was 32 of the 38 episodes and have watched it start to finish almost every month! I love all the character portrayals and found out what I could of the actors which wasn't easy! The series itself is splendorous in every aspect: set dressings, costumes, script, interpretation and characterisations, even the minor characters. But the sound track music – oh my goodness, extraordinary is a mild word to describe it. I think all of it has surpassed any similar productions from Hollywood and our own BBCtv. I particularly loved the way the different acts were divided by drifting views of wondrous landscapes of desert sands and mountains. The principal character, Joseph, played by Angelo Paes Leme and Ricky Taveres, both of Brazil, are faithful interpretations and make your heart ache with what the real Joseph must have gone through. But then, he was the precursor of Jesus so it follows biblically. Family stories, love stories, a history and biblical stories all rolled into one. It's amazing and should have had awards galore! One thing though, I would say that the closing 10 minutes of the last episode are heart wrenching. Very little said, all visual - but that music! I'd seriously love to get a box set of of this (with English dubbing, of course) but I don't suppose that's ever going to be possible. I actually contacted 'My Channel' and they told me they will be running the series again sometime next year. I am SO delighted!

Marvelous example of a Biblical Series

[jackiebe · 10/10 · 24 September 2013]

It is a great series, because (1) It brings life to the Biblical main story, as recorded in the Bible: not changing order of the events, nor the (acting) motives of the characters. (2) The author provides several interesting subplots carefully detailed, without distorting the main message of the story: the meaning of true love and family ties. Several subplots are not in the Biblical text but complement the story so wonderfully that do not bother the viewers at all. Watching it brought motivation to read (refresh) the text of the Scripture (Book of Genesis Chapters 37 to 50), to compare and confirm the real facts, as well as the fictional parts of the story.

The best so far of the re-tellings of the story of Joseph

[Fromclassicbookstofilm · 9/10 · 2 November 2013]

I enjoyed this miniseries from the beginning to the end.It followed the Biblical account.Examples: The rape of Dinah by Prince Shechem ,half-sister and also cousin of Joseph and Joseph's half-brother/cousin Reuben's affair with his father Jacob's concubine Bilhah and half-brother/cousin Judah who deceived in disguise by Tamar,his ex-daughter-in-law widow of Judah's two no good sons Er and Onan impregnates her with twin sons.Judah's wife by the way was a Canaanite woman who hated her Aramaic daughter-in-law Tamar.This version doesn't mention or other versions that Judah's wife wanted her sons married to Canaanite women and succeeded in marrying off her youngest Shelah to a Canaanite woman.She wasn't going to have her youngest surviving son end up like his brothers.She blamed Tamar for the deaths of Er and Onan.You will not see these Biblical stories in most of the movies about Joseph.Ted Turner did a wonderful version in the nineties that kept the Dinah and Tamar episodes.Some of the names picked for the wives of the sons of Jacob were incorrect as well as the nationalities with the exception of Asenath.Reuben did not marry a Canaanite woman named Naamah whom Levi and Simeon captured when they killed Prince Hamor and Prince Shechem and the men of their city in retaliation for the rape of their full sister Dinah.The Naamah character in this story's husband was killed in front of her and she was in early stages of pregnancy with the Mara character who later becomes Joseph's full brother Benjamin's wife.It was one of Zilpah's another concubine of Jacob's. One of she and Jacobs sons married a widow with a young daughter.My one disappointment with this story was too much time given to Joseph's four eldest half-brother & half sister/cousins (the sons of his mother Rachel's sister Leah,the first wife of Jacob) Reuben,Simeon,Levi,Judah and Dinah hardly any characterization or time given to Issachar and Zebulon the youngest sons of Jacob and Leah.Benjamin the full brother of Joseph and the youngest son of Jacob and his second and favorite wife Rachel he gets a lot of storyline,too.The sons of Jacob and his concubines (secondary wives) Bilhah,the mother of Naphtali and Dan and Gad and Asher the sons of Zilpah,the second concubine of Zilpah get hardly any storyline at all.The sets and costumes were great.Someone certainly did their homework on costume design and study of ancient history.The Egyptians,Canaanites,Ishmaelites,Midianites and Israelites were dressed as the ancient drawings portrayed them.This series treated all ancient peoples with dignity.Some of the previous adaptations of the Jacob and Joseph stories made the ancestors of today's Israelite and Jewish peoples look like unwashed bums.The Jews have always been a clean people and even in the worst of circumstances tried to dress decently.Jacob,his father Isaac and grandfather were made wealthy men thanks to their faith in God.This version portrays Jacob and his family as wealthy people which they were.I love this version would recommend it to anyone who likes films of faith or Bible epics.