Egypt calls for Netflix series Cleopatra to be banned
CAIRO: Egypt’s Prosecutor General’s Office received a complaint about Netflix’s new documentary series “Queen Cleopatra” demanding it be banned following reports of inaccurate history and cultural insensitivity, Sputnik reported citing a report by El-Watan newspaper on Sunday.
The four-episode docudrama premiered on Netflix on May 10 and sparked huge controversy because it stars ‘British biracial’ actress Adele James as Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of Egypt who ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom.
A complaint filed by an official from Egypt’s Ministry of Culture alleges that Netflix has distorted famous historical images by creating historical falsifications.
The official demanded that the series be removed from the streaming platform and banned forever, the newspaper reported.
The documentary’s producers should have consulted archaeologists and anthropologists to create the right image of Cleopatra, according to the complaint.
Tens of thousands of people signed a petition in April criticizing the choice of a black actress to portray the Ancient Egyptian queen, arguing that the series peddled “Afrocentrism” in an attempt to “claim Egyptian history.
Cleopatra is known to be from the Macedonian Greek dynasty founded by Ptolemy, an army general of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica Cleopatra had little, if any, Egyptian blood, and was the first member of the Ptolemaic family to learn the Egyptian language.
