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In maintaining its focus on its “Strong Black Lead, ” Netflix continues to reign on the forefront of providing relevant depictions of Black women as intellectual supreme rulers throughout history as part of its latest documentary installment, “Queen Cleopatra”.
The 4 episode docu-series explores the life of Cleopatra whose name translates to Greek: “Famous in Her Father” but in full Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (“Cleopatra the Father-Loving Goddess”). She was born 70/69 BCE—died August 30 BCE, Alexandria. The Egyptian queen is most famously known in history and drama as the lover of Julius Caesar and later as the wife of Mark Antony. She became queen on the death of her father, Ptolemy XII, in 51 BCE and ruled successively with her two brothers Ptolemy XIII (51–47) and Ptolemy XIV (47–44) and her son Ptolemy XV Caesar (44–30). After the Roman armies of Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) defeated their combined forces, Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, and Egypt fell under Roman domination. Cleopatra actively influenced Roman politics at a crucial period, and she came to represent, as did no other woman of antiquity, the prototype of the romantic femme fatale.
From Executive Producer Jada Pinkett-Smith comes a documentary series exploring the lives of prominent and iconic African Queens. This season will feature Queen Cleopatra, the world’s most famous, powerful, and misunderstood woman — a daring queen whose beauty and romances came to overshadow her real asset: her intellect. Cleopatra’s heritage has been the subject of much academic debate, which has often been ignored by Hollywood. Now this series re-assesses a fascinating part of her story.
Here are some of the first look images from the production stills that give us a glimpse of the beautiful iconography of her dynastic world:
