Top Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, who still wears his Indiana Jones hat, announced the release of a documentary about Cleopatra on Wednesday, the same day Netflix aired a similar film, which drew viewers’ ire. Egyptian.
The hour-and-a-half documentary is being described on the YouTube channel by director Curtis Ryan Woodside as the story of the “REAL Cleopatra” as Netflix’s decision to cast Cleopatra with a black actress provoked passionate reactions in Egypt for weeks.
“Was Cleopatra black? First of all, I have nothing against black people at all, but I am stating facts: look at the Macedonian queens, none of them were black,” Mr Hawass points out in this documentary.
The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities had already looked into the case, affirming that Cleopatra had “white skin and Hellenistic features”.
Egypt’s social networks and media were outraged when the trailer for ‘Queen Cleopatra’, produced by Jada Pinkett Smith for Netflix and presented as ‘based on reconstructions and expert testimony’, aired.
Photo Khaled DESOUKI / AFP
An online petition titled Stop the Cleopatra documentary on Netflix due to historical manipulation has garnered more than 40,000 signatures.
And in a country where voices are calling for a ban on Netflix over content deemed offensive to Egypt or “its family values”, MP Saboura al-Sayyed has asked parliament for the umpteenth time to ban the platform.
In Egypt, netizens and commentators regularly condemn campaigns, particularly by African-American groups, that claim black African origins of Pharaonic civilization.
Cleopatra belonged to the Macedonian dynasty of the Lagids and was descended from General Ptolemy, who became king of Egypt during the partition of the empire of Alexander the Great.
If the legend says that around 69 B.C. was born. J.-C. was of great beauty, her appearance and complexion remain largely subject to interpretation.
In 2009, a BBC documentary claimed that she had African blood without arousing passions.