EXCLUSIVE: The disappearance of Libyan opposition leader Mansur Rashid Kikhia in 1993 was one of the mysteries of Muammar Qaddafi’s 40-year bloody rule of Libya, which was only partially solved after the dictator was deposed in 2011.
Kikhia’s daughter, U.S. filmmaker Jihan K, revisits the story and her mother, Syrian artist Baha Al Omary’s battle to uncover the truth in documentary My Father and Qaddafi, which premieres Out of Competition in Venice on Friday.
Deadline can reveal a first clip for the film mixing family home videos, archival footage and contemporary interviews piecing together what happened to her father and his beloved country of Libya.
The work also follows the efforts of the filmmaker – who was only six-years-old when her father disappeared, and raised between the U.S. and France – to reconcile with her Libyan identity.
The U.S. and Libyan production is produced by Jihan; executive produced by Dave Guenette, Mohamed Soueid, and Sol Guy, and co-produced by Andreas Rocksén and William Johansson Kalén of Laika Film, with Jayson Jackson and Mohamed Siam serving as a consulting producers.
“If my father was alive today, he would be 94 years old. Sharing his untold story is also sharing an untold story of Libya, one that spans almost 100 years of Libyan history and politics,” explains Jihan in her director’s notes.
“I don’t want my father to disappear a second time. I feel an urgency to overcome my void in the midst of Libya’s relentless chaos and instability, which I fear will eventually bury my Libyan identity.”
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