On Wednesday, May 10, Netflix uploaded its controversial Cleopatra docu-drama. The Queen of Egypt is embodied by a black actress. A heresy for Egypt.
The docu-fiction on the last pharaoh of Egypt was released on Wednesday May 10 on Netflix and it is causing controversy in Egypt. “Queen Cleopatra” is based on the idea validated by some experts that Cleopatra, born in 69 BC, was perhaps black by her mother, while our history books have always presented her to us as a light-skinned heroine of Greco-Macedonian descent. Black, white or mestizo, in reality, there is no certainty. But for the Egyptians, it is an ultra-sensitive subject. A black Cleopatra is in their eyes a historical falsification. A reappropriation”africanist“. A profound attack on their cultural identity.
As soon as the casting was announced, moreover, they began to protest: in two days, a petition reached 85,000 signatures before being withdrawn. A lawyer has gone so far as to file a complaint with the Egyptian Attorney General asking for the banning of the documentary, the blocking of Netflix in the country and, more generally, the censorship of “any work distorting Egyptian identity”. Request relayed by a deputy. The powerful Minister of Tourism and Antiquities also entered into the debate by publishing a press release.
On Wednesday, release day, high-profile archaeologist Zahi Hawass — the one still wearing his Indiana Jones hat — released a 90-minute film about the “real” Cleopatra. White, of course.
Controlling “the official narrative”
This controversy tells us a lot about Egypt’s desire to control the “official narrative”. Obsession of the authoritarian Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi, who has ruled the country for ten years. We don’t touch Cleopatra, any more than we touch the Islamic values that make up Egypt. It is a question of identity, religion and politics.
Last year, an animated film from Pixar studios could not be released because a scene showed a kiss between two women. On Netflix, a very popular Arabic series, “Do we know each other or not“, has, she, created the controversy because she staged homosexual characters or drinking alcohol. It was enough for the platform to be found guilty of broadcasting “offensive content“. In September, the government therefore set up a licensing system to force streaming sites to respect the “societal norms and values” from the country. Netflix’s Cleopatra only reinforces the censorship.