Adele James, a black actress portraying Cleopatra, the last active queen of ancient Egypt whose father was Ptolemaic, in the Queen Cleopatra episode of Netflix’s new docu-series, African Queens, sparked a worldwide debate. The issue naturally hit Egyptian society closer to home than others, which led to James’ portrayal of Cleopatra to be formally addressed
Egypt has announced its own high-budget documentary about Queen Cleopatra VII, challenging Netflix's controversial documentary about the same subject. The documentary will be produced by newly-launched channel Al-Watha’eqeya (The Documentary), according to an announcement on the channel's Facebook page on April 30. “Al-Watha’eqeya have started preparations for the production of a documentary film about Queen
Following the release of the controversial Netflix documentary series, Queen Cleopatra, Egyptian experts and youth were outraged, claiming that the show “falsifies Egyptian history” and “promotes Afrocentrism”. In the documentary, Cleopatra, one of Egypt’s most famous historical figures, is portrayed by Adele James, who is biracial. In the trailer, one of the talking heads says,