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Rabat – Iranian-born British-American filmmaker Tina Gharavi hit back against backlash and criticism targeting her “Queen Cleopatra” Netflix docuseries.
The series sparked Egyptians’ frustration after a trailer showed Queen Cleopatra depicted as a black woman.
In response, Egyptians accused the filmmaker of “blackwashing” and “stealing” Egypt’s ancient history.
The filmmaker, however, responded to the backlash in an opinion piece published by Variety.
“Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister? And why do some people need Cleopatra to be white? Her proximity to whiteness seems to give her value, and for some Egyptians it seems to really matter,” Gharavi said.
The filmmaker said she received threats from Egyptians, who have threatened to ruin her career.
“Some threatened to ruin my career — which I wanted to tell them was laughable. I was ruining it very well for myself, thank you very much!” the director said.
“No amount of reasoning or reminders that Arab invasions had not yet happened in Cleopatra’s age seemed to stem the tide of ridiculous comments,” she said.
She stressed that there is no indication whether Cleopatra was black or not, but argued that the queen wasn’t “white like Elizabeth Taylor.”
The filmmaker also called on her critics to have a conversation on “colorism, and the internalized white supremacy that Hollywood has indoctrinated us with.”
The filmmaker also saw Egyptians’ reaction to the series as a frustration, saying: “Perhaps that I’ve directed a series that portrays Cleopatra as Black, but that I have asked Egyptians to see themselves as Africans, and they are furious at me for that.”
The upcoming docuseries will be released on Netflix on May 10, starring British actress Adele James. Jada Pinkett Smith produced the docudrama.
