Gaddafi

Of the 69 million people living in Thailand, four percent are Muslim. All these 2.5 million people have both a Thai and an Islamic name, but one of them has only one name. "My real name," he tells us. Mohammad Gaddafi is a handsome schoolboy. He has had to explain to his friends many times how he got his name. The former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was his father's hero, and ever since the colonel drove King Idris I out of Libya in 1969, his father had said that he would name his first-born after the revolutionary. This is just what he did, and he still defends his choice passionately. But since Gaddafi's violent demise in 2011, the Thai Gaddafi's mother has been more worried than ever about her son's unusual name. Gaddafi is now old enough to file for his own identity card – the perfect opportunity to consider a name change. By giving the floor to both advocates and opponents, the interviews with this Thai Muslim family pose the age-old question: what's in a name? (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)