Egyptian Legal Team Sues Netflix for USD 2B Over Cleopatra Documentary

A team of Egyptian lawyers and archaeologists is calling for legal action against streaming platform Netflix, demanding a monetary compensation of USD 2 billion for falsely depicting the image of Cleopatra in their recently released documentary film, ‘Queen Cleopatra’.

The team has called on UNESCO to intervene and affirm Egypt's right to an initial compensation of USD 2 billion for the alleged distortion of Egyptian heritage.

Egyptian lawyer Amr Abdelsalam, part of the case’s legal team, has filed a lawsuit before the Administrative Court of the State Council to compel the Egyptian government, represented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to take all diplomatic measures and communicate with relevant international organizations to ban the recent documentary.

The film has triggered a debate prior to its release due to the way it changed Cleopatra’s ethnicity, which many saw as a deliberate erasure and reinterpretation of history.