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  • Controversy Netflix's black Cleopatra who burns Egypt: "Cleopatra was Greek and blonde, not black"
  • Opinion Black Cleopatra in times of genetic testing

That Netflix's Cleopatra is black is the least of it. And Netflix also addresses this issue in the first minutes. Very early in Queen Cleopatra, this semi-documentary series offers the testimonies of ancient Egyptian scholars who say it point-blank and with conviction: Cleopatra was black. We can face daring (or become Egyptologists ourselves) and waste a lot of time arguing... Or we can abandon this series for many other reasons. Queen Cleopatra is an embarrassing disaster and the skin color of her protagonist is not the biggest of her problems.

The pharaonic thing is audiovisually complicated. It's too attractive a universe not to explore. Also one that we don't yet fully understand and that we try to manage through assumptions, assumptions and theories. We are still learning a lot from the ancient Egyptians, we still have a lot to learn and all that learning will necessarily involve the discarding of previous theories, assumptions and assumptions. From not knowing why the pyramids of Giza are where they are, we give their location an astronomical explanation... that soon became astrological to finally begin to be dismantled by those who, very cautiously, remind us that science is for something.

Queen Cleopatra, narrated by Jada Pinket-Smith, is a mixture of camera testimonies from experts in the field and fictional free recreations of the life of the most mythical queen of Egypt. And also more mythological. That a series served to scientifically clear the unknowns and mysteries that surround Cleopatra would be nice. This is not that series. Because that series is not possible.

I prefer an invented Cleopatra and a la Bridgerton than one equally fictitious and torticeramente supported by testimonies that pretend to give it textbook entity. With a format like that of Queen Cleopatra, even the closest historical events can become an ahistorical ruthlessness. But the more distant the story (sorry: the Story) that they tell us like this, the easier it is to fall into the trap that this type of narration tends to.

If The Bridgerton included expert testimony in the Regency it would be similar to Queen Cleopatra. And at the same time it would continue to be as enjoyable and uncomplex as it is in reality. Shonda Rhimes' series and Queen Cleopatra are only alike in one delusional thing: both have drawn criticism for including non-white people in places where tradition calls for race... Aryan? But Shonda's fiction does not hide its essence of playful invention, while Queen Cleopatra, with its gravitas of cultural and informative product, cheats.

Among those who criticize The Crown or Kings of the night because "things were not like that" and those who put their hands to their heads because the new Disney Little Mermaid is black are those who could believe, more literally than literarily, the books of Santiago Posteguillo or series like Queen Cleopatra. That "things were not like that" is the least of it. The important thing is that you tell me well. This is not the case.

  • Series
  • Netflix
  • Egypt

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