BBC4 joins Search for Gaddafi’s Billions

BBC4 has come on board a Brook Lapping documentary commissioned by VPRO, NPO, ZDF and Arte in Europe about former Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddifi’s missing fortune.

Muammar al-Gaddafi

The Search for Gaddafi’s Billions (working title, 1×90′) will follow two Dutch journalists, Misha Wessel and Thomas Blom, as they enter the dark and mysterious world of spies, special forces and political insiders, who are all hunting Gaddafi’s cash.

VPRO/NPO in the Netherlands are the lead commissioners of the film, which is a copro with ZDF/Arte and Brook Lapping, part of Zinc Media Group, in association with Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion.

It will air in the UK as part of BBC4’s Storyville strand and was commissioned by Mandy Chang, commissioning editor for Storyville.

It is executive produced by Greg Sanderson and Karen Edwards for Brook Lapping at Zinc Media and distributed by All3Media International.

Greg Sanderson, director, London television at Zinc Media, said: “Our films are renowned for uncovering the real events behind modern history’s key moments. This film is no exception and we expect it to build on its strong presales to garner strong international interest.”

Chang added: “The dark story of Muammar al-Gaddafi and what happened to the billions he amassed and stashed outside Libya during his lifetime is shrouded in mystery.

“As the Libyan people, robbed of vast reserves that Gaddafi took for himself, remain impoverished and locked in a power vacuum, two competing groups mount a hunt for the US$12.5bn, that Gaddafi hid in South Africa.”

Brook Lapping has previously worked on titles including Inside Europe: 10 Years of Turmoil, Inside Obama’s White House and, most recently, Cuba: Castro vs The World.

Supported by EU Media, the NPO Fund and the EBU Documentary Fund and distributed by All3Media International, the film was presold to the BBC, along with sales to SVT in Sweden, DR in Denmark, NRK in Norway, YLE in Finland and RTS in Switzerland.