It will be a long time before Rugaya Muttawa can dry her tears, but she is now tired of crying. For a whole day she has done her best to persuade her youngest son, Osama, to stay away from their home country of Libya. Hundreds have already been injured and killed in the rebellion against the dictator Muammar Gaddafi. 'Fine, I'll stay,' her son tells her, but continues to pack his suitcase. He travels to Paris, but Rugaya knows that this won't be his final destination. The Muttawa family were forced to flee Libya when Muammar Gaddafi nationalised their oil provision business at the end of the 1970s. Since that point they have built themselves a life as hotel and property owners in London, though always with their heart at home in Libya. When the revolution first began in February 2011, the family could have opted to continue with their comfortable existence in London, but instead chose to stand together and fight with their people. Rugaya's son, Osama, becomes a leading figure in the Libyan people's army, whilst her youngest daughter works for the UN in Benghazi, the city at the heart of the rebellion movement. Her parents and brothers finance the revolution through logistics, weapons and medicine, in addition to providing the international media with information from the closed-off country. Fransson, an experienced foreign correspondent, has been invited into the family's homes - both in Libya and in London. From there she has had the chance to tell a very unique story. Løvekvinnen fra Libya is a warm and moving depiction of a family and a generational journey - whilst also giving an account of Libya's wild history in a way that we have never heard it told before.
