Documentary Unveils a Daughter’s Search for Her Father’s Fate Under Qaddafi’s Regime

The film opens with a young Jihan playing a few notes of Beethoven on the piano in a grainy home video. Her mother then shows her a photo of her missing father and asks what she would say if he could hear her. The child’s heartfelt reply: “I love him very much and want him to come back now.”

Titled "My Father and Qaddafi," this 90-minute documentary directed by Jihan Kikhia premieres at the Venice International Film Festival, which runs from Wednesday through September 6. It tells the story of growing up as the daughter of Mansour Kikhia, a prominent opposition leader in exile who challenged Libya’s dictator, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi. Mansour was abducted in December 1993 and has never been seen by his family since.

Blending personal family footage and photographs with news archives and interviews, the documentary serves both as a daughter’s intimate search for answers and a concise history of Libya’s troubled past—from colonial oppression under Italy, through decades of Qaddafi’s authoritarian rule, to the current fractured state divided by rival governments.

The film also includes surreal moments, such as when Jihan’s mother is invited to meet Qaddafi himself in his desert tent—the very man believed to be responsible for her husband’s disappearance.

Jihan K, who splits her time across South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, spoke about her father and her film during a recent video interview from Sri Lanka. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.