A Netflix docudrama depicting Queen Cleopatra as black has sparked an uproar in Egypt.

‘Queen Cleopatra’ stars British actress Adele James, who is of mixed heritage, as the title character.

But Egyptian academics insists that Cleopatra, who was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in 69 BC, was light-skinned and of European descent, not black.

So intense is the backlash that an Egyptian lawyer has reportedly filed a complaint in an attempt to prevent the show from airing in Egypt, accusing the film of violating media laws and aiming to “erase the Egyptian identity”.

Netflix has not responded to the controversy.

However, James took to social media with a message to the critics: “If you don’t like the casting, don’t watch the show.”

The show’s executive producer and narrator, American actress Jada Pinkett Smith, was quoted as saying: “We don’t often get to see or hear stories about black queens, and that was really important for me, as well as for my daughter, and just for my community to be able to know those stories because there are tons of them!”

Cleopatra was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in 69 BC.

She succeeded her father, Ptolemy XII, and ruled Egypt until her death in 30 BC. Cleopatra was of Macedonian-Greek descent on her father’s side, however the identity of her mother is not known, leading to speculation that her mother could possibly have been African.