Part of New York African Film Festival 2026

DIRECTOR: Jihan

YEAR: 2025

COUNTRY: U.S. / Libya

RUNTIME: 88 minutes

LANGUAGE: Arabic, English, and French with English subtitles

VENUES: Francesca Beale Theater

When director Jihan was 6, her father, the Libyan opposition leader Mansur Rashid Kikhia, disappeared. Her first documentary, My Father and Qaddafi—which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the Jury Prize at the Marrakech International Film Festival—takes us on a raw and reflective journey as she sets out to piece together the life of a father she barely remembers. She retraces the 19-year journey of her mother, a strong-willed Syrian-American artist, encounters family members and her father’s peers, and revisits historical archive footage, along the way discovering the troubled history and politics of Libya. What begins as a mystery brings her closer to her father and her Libyan identity. “Making this documentary helps me understand the importance of a father figure and the impact of losing a father on a family, a community, and even a country,” Jihan has said.

Q&A with Jihan following the May 7th screening!