Searching For Kikhia (working Title)
Spring Grants 2019 - Production Stage
Jihan Kikhia / Feature Documentary / Libya, Qatar / 90 min / Original Language: English / Interests: Women, Drama, Politics, Based on a True Story, Identity, Creative Documentary
Synopsis
Director Jihan Kikhia was only six years old when her father was abducted. Widely considered one of Muammar Qaddafi’s biggest threats, Mansur Rashid Kikhia was a peaceful opposition leader to the Qaddafi regime and unofficially crowned the next leader of Libya. As former Libyan Foreign Minister and human rights lawyer, Kikhia’s obsessive loyalty to Libya and determination to reason with his “brother” Qaddafi led to his disappearance. For 19 years, Jihan witnessed her mother, a Syrian-American artist, Baha Omary Kikhia, search for her father, as they moved between France and the United States. While providing Jihan and her siblings with a joyful childhood, Baha’s perilous search eventually led her to a face-to-face encounter with Qaddafi in the middle of the Libyan Desert at midnight—negotiating for her husband’s release. This documentary is a collection of anecdotes by Jihan’s mother, family members, friends, and key figures involved in the case, who provide candid, yet often contradictory truths. Using archival footage, family video, investigative research and her visual art as animation, Jihan invites the audience on her raw and reflective journey as she pieces together a father she barely knew and tells an untold story of Libya.
Credits
- Director
- Jihan Kikhia
- Screenwriter
- Jihan Kikhia
- Producer
- Mohamed Soueid
About the Director
Jihan Kikhia is half-Syrian, half-Libyan. She received her BA in International and Comparative Politics with a concentration in Human Rights, Philosophy, and International Law at the American University of Paris. She obtained her MA at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a focus on art education and storytelling. In 2012, her article ‘Libya, my Father, and I’ was published in Kalimat Magazine: Arab Thought and Culture. Jihan is committed to discovering the different ways in which the creative process can be used as a vehicle for freedom and empowerment.