Denzel Washington’s latest project – a film on Tunisian General Hannibal Barca – currently stands in limbo, owing to the collective Tunisian outrage.

Veteran actor Denzel Washington finds himself in the line of fire in what appears to be a broiling controversy surrounding cultural appropriation and miscommunicated identity.

Washington being cast by major streaming platform Netflix in the role of General Hannibal Barca, has been met with widespread disapproval from Tunisians.

The casting is being touted as one tantamount to a ‘historical error’ if not reversed.

Tunisians express outrage over Denzel Washington’s miscasting

Denzel Washington has been brought on board for an unnamed Netflix project, which as per the streaming giant’s press release, based on, “the Carthaginian general who famously led an army of warriors and elephants across the Alps to fight the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War.”

The choice of casting for the titular role however, appears to have been rejected by Tunisians. A petition too is being circulated demanding an all-together scrapping of the project owing to the “unacceptable and unethical” casting which “falsi(fies) History”.

Translated excerpts from a La Presse article – a French language Tunisian outlet, reads, “To consider Hannibal as a black African would be, according to Tunisians and many observers, a historical error, because Carthage, built by the Phoenicians in the current Tunisia, is located just 200 kilometers southwest of Sicily.”

The Tunisian government has been debating the film’s validity

Deliberations over the project has led to Tunisia’s culture minister Hayet Ketat Guermazi, being confronted by Tunisian MP Yassine Mami.

While Guermazi happens to be in the midst of negotiations with Netflix to allow the latter to shoot in the country, Mami on the other hand has professed that the general Tunisian reaction has been one of disapproval – something that should not be ignored.

To this, Guermazi has said, “Its fiction, its 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.”