Queen Cleopatra, the highly anticipated second instalment in Jada Pinkett Smith’s African Queens series on Netflix, has been met with a great deal of criticism since its teaser was released on April 12. Adele James stars as the Egyptian empress. However, many have expressed their disapproval of the casting and accused it of falsifying history.
Now, Egyptian attorney Mahmoud al-Semary has taken this criticism to the next level by filing a petition with the Public Prosecutor to shut down Netflix in Egypt. According to his complaint, “most of what Netflix platform displays do not conform to Islamic and societal values and principles, especially Egyptian ones.” He added that there must be pride in the making of such work to preserve the Egyptian national identity.
Egyptian antiquities former minister Zahi Hawass has also voiced his opinion on Queen Cleopatra, accusing Netflix of “falsifying facts” and trying “to create confusion to promote erroneous information that the genesis of Egyptian civilization is black.” This statement has been met with backlash from the Egyptian diaspora, who have gathered nearly 85,000 signatures in less than two days on a Change.org petition to cancel the documentary before its release next month.
Queen Cleopatra is set to be released on May 10 and will provide an in-depth look at the fascinating story of one of history’s most powerful women. Whether it will ultimately remain on Netflix or not remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the debate around this documentary is far from over.
Watch the Trailer for Queen Cleopatra
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