Denzel Washington has been selected to star as the ancient conqueror Hannibal in an upcoming feature film set for Netflix. News of the casting, however, caused debates on race and history in Tunisia, the modern-day birthplace of the ancient Carthaginian general.
According to The Guardian, French-language Tunisian news outlet La Presse published an article calling the decision “a historical error,” although Hannibal’s skin color is not verifiable.
Additionally, an online petition was launched on Change.org last month by Sons Of Tanyt, calling for the film to be recast. The digital campaign has reached 1,988 signatures of its 2,500 goal as of Thursday morning (Dec. 14).
“This is a false and racist information in an attempt to support the racist Afrocentric movement,” writes the group, who directed their petition to Netflix and Tunisia’s Ministry of Culture.
“History isn’t a free space to imagine, when it comes to documenting history truth and accuracy are essential… this miscasting and falsifying History is unacceptable and unethical. They want to rewrite History with false information with zero evidence and will no doubt be trying to silence any educated people who try to correct it. If the aim of this documentary was truly to document history they would have actually searched or even read about Hannibal, and when confronted with the truth they would maybe review the differences.”
Washington’s pending role was announced last month as one of acclaimed director Antoine Fuqua’s upcoming films for the streamer. It is “based on real-life warrior Hannibal, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in history.”
According to The Independent, shortly after the news was revealed, Tunisian Minister of Cultural Affairs, Hayet Guettat Guermazi, announced that her department was seeking assurances from Netflix that parts of the movie would be filmed in the country, with questions surrounding the approval of the project.
“There is a risk of falsifying history,” he reportedly stated. “We need to take position on this subject. This is about defending Tunisian identity and listening to the reactions of civil society.”
They continued to explain, “It’s fiction; it’s their right. Hannibal is a historical figure, even if we’re all proud that he’s Tunisian … What could we do? What matters to me is that they shoot even one sequence in Tunisia and mention it. We want Tunisia to become a platform for foreign films again.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7t7XBnmWcp51ku6bD0micp6yVp8Gitc2mnKesX5myr8bEpWSwmaOdtq%2Bz06ilZqCRo7uqrsClZJyqmam2pLXSpmStrZ6ewKqtjGppbGxoaIB6gpZo