![]() ![]() The assertion and casting came under fire from several notable quarters, including those in the actual modern Egypt. Haley of Hamilton College, who said her grandmother once told her, “I don’t care what they tell you in school, Cleopatra was Black.” The trailer even rather proactively includes a line from one of its interviewees, Professor Shelley P. ![]() ![]() Yet the veracity of the documentary aspect of the film is being aggressively challenged after Netflix’s Cleopatra cast Black British actress Adele James as Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last pharaoh of Egypt and the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The documentary is the second of three from the streaming service and executive producer Jada Pinkett Smith, both of whom have committed to spotlighting women rulers in African history by way of historical reenactments (or “docudrama”) which is then juxtaposed against interviews with talking heads and experts. Yet it’s being put to the test this week via the release of Netflix’s African Queens: Cleopatra. The proverb of “all press is good press” feels almost as old as the Nile. ![]()
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