The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities stated that Cleopatra had "white skin and Hellenistic characteristics" in an ongoing dispute over Netflix's drama-documentary portraying one of Egypt's most prominent historical figures as a black-skinned woman.
The movie, produced by Jada Pinkett Smith and starring Adele James, is expected to be released on May 10, but its trailer had already caused a backlash specifically among the Egyptian public.
The ministry weighed into the dispute by releasing a statement, in which it insisted Cleopatra was light-skinned and citing various experts who all agreed on this matter. The statement was published along with illustrations showing Cleopatra with European traits.
"Bas-reliefs and statues of Queen Cleopatra are the best evidence of her true features and her Macedonian origins," the statement read.
In particular, Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the famous queen depicted as a black woman is a "falsification of Egyptian history and a blatant historical fallacy," especially since the movie is classified as a documentary and not as a feature film. He noted that making a documentary requires those directing it to investigate its accuracy and rely on historical and scientific facts to ensure that history is not distorted.
He added that consulting archaeologists and anthropologists is a must, when making this sort of documentary, pointing out that there are many antiquities of Queen Cleopatra, including statues and coins that confirm her true features. All of them, he underlined, show the Hellenistic (Greek) features of the queen, such as fair skin and thin lips.
Waziri explained that there is nothing racist in this position as it is motivated by intention to defend "the history of Queen Cleopatra VII, an important part of the history of Egypt in antiquity."
Nasser Makkawi, Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Faculty of Archeology, Cairo University, shared the same viewpoint, saying that the movie contradicts historical facts. According to the scientist, the depiction of Cleopatra as black goes against the writings of historians such as Plutarch and Lucius Cassius Dio, who recorded the events of Roman history in Egypt during the reign of Queen Cleopatra and confirmed that she was light-skinned and "had pure Macedonian ancestry."
Earlier, an online petition accusing the filmmakers of rewriting history has already accumulated over 40,000 signatures. Moreover, an Egyptian attorney filed a lawsuit against the Netflix streaming platform for depicting Cleopatra as a black woman following the release of the trailer for the upcoming movie.