Lawyer Amr Abdel Salam filed an urgent lawsuit on Wednesday with the Administrative Court wherein he demanded that Egyptian authorities compel Netflix to suspend its “Queen Cleopatra” documentary.
The lawsuit stated that government officials must be obligated to take all diplomatic measures, communicate with relevant international organizations, and undertake regional litigation measures as well as litigation measures in the US to stop the documentary.
Abdel Salam also asked the platform and the filmmakers to pay financial compensation to Egypt as a result of the material and moral damages suffered from this film.
The lawsuit stated that Egyptian authorities are obligated, according to Article 50 of the Constitution, to preserve its cultural heritage in all possible forms and ways through diplomatic means, addressing international organizations concerned with preserving cultural heritage, and taking international and regional litigation measures to stop the cultural attack taking place against Egypt and track down its perpetrators.
The film contains gross historical inaccuracies and constitutes a flagrant assault on Egypt’s civilizational and cultural heritage, he explained.
The lawsuit stated that the film demonstrates foreign cultural and media invasion of the Egyptian heritage launched by colonial countries through using cinema as one of its soft powers, thereby stealing Egypt’s heritage in order to nullify its identity and spread disinformation.
Hawass speaks out
Netflix launched the trailer for its documentary film “Queen Cleopatra”, directed by Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of the famous US star Will Smith, depicting Queen Cleopatra as a black woman, which former Egyptian Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass described as “falsifying facts.”
The trailer was released by Netflix in April.
The film will start showing on the platform officially on May 10, where actress Adele James will play the role of the Queen.
Queen Cleopatra, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was born in 69 BC and died in 30 BC in Alexandria.
Hawass commented on the movie, which sparked public criticism in Egypt for portraying the Ptolemaic Queen as black-skinned, saying: “This is completely fake.
Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was blonde, not black.”
Hawass added that in recent years a trend emerged, led by black Americans and blacks in South America, claiming that the Egyptian civilization is of black origin.
He stressed that such claims were completely false.
The black civilization has no connection with the Egyptian civilization, Hawass said, pointing out that the black civilization did not rule Egypt except in the twenty-fifth dynasty during the era of the Kingdom of Kush, i.e. at the end of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
‘They are stealing my culture’!
Egyptian satirist and journalist Bassem Youssef slammed Netflix’s “Queen Cleopatra”, calling it a falsification of history after it released the special trailer for the documentary series which revolves around the Queen Cleopatra VII, the last
Youssef Tweeted: “People from West Africa and other nationalities agree with the point of view that I put forward. It is very important when we defend our point of view or our history that we do this with politeness and respect for other civilizations.”
“It is never true that while we defend our history we insult or underestimate other ethnicities or civilizations, that is why I insisted that I speak with respect about the civilizations of West Africa, because these people are not our enemies and they will respect us when we respect their history.”
