The opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics will apparently have at least one freaky scene that would seem to play to negative stereotypes of Brazil.
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Brazil’s own Gisele Bündchen will appear in the opening ceremony in a sort of skit that shows an actor assaulting and mugging her, according to multiple reports. The lack of clarity in the current translation leaves much to the English reader’s imagination, but the overall message is apparently supposed to be one of resilience (against being fake robbed) and the strength and endurance of the human spirit (i.e. the audience sitting through this). Just this week, security was forced to conduct a “contained explosion” at the Maracana Stadium because of the presence of a suspicious package.
As she struts down a catwalk to the sound of The Girl From Ipanema, she is unexpectedly held up and robbed.
The bit of performance art is reportedly meant to spread a message of peace, but critics scoffed at what they saw as a blatant romanticizing of some of the more negative aspects of Brazilian culture.
According to the crowd, the show will trace the history of Brazil, it’s music and contribution to the world – starting with a call for peace, then moving through Brazil’s jungles, and ending in its slums. It will include a flyover of a replica 14 Bis, the first biplane built by Brazilian aviation pioneer Santos Dumont. Soon after, the course is free for Bündchen’s parade of more than 100 meters.
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The ceremony is expected to be watched by up to 900 million viewers about 7am Saturday (Australian time).
