In 1969 Leila Khaled became the first woman to hijack a plane. “When I was a child, she was my idol,” says director Lina Makboul, who grew up in Sweden as the daughter of Palestinian parents. Leila Khaled was born in Palestine in 1944. In 1948, after the state of Israel was founded, her mother fled with her to Lebanon, where Leila Khaled grew up in a refugee camp. In 1967, following the Six-Day War, she joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Two years later she hijacked a TWA flight, diverting it to Damascus – and suddenly bringing the Palestinian cause to the attention of the world. Young and attractive, Leila Khaled gave the Palestinian struggle a hint of glamour. One year and six cosmetic surgery operations later, she was involved in hijacking an Israeli El Al flight. The attempt failed and she was imprisoned in the UK, but freed in an exchange of hostages. In the eyes of the west, Leila Khaled was a terrorist. But she saw herself as a freedom fighter. Today she lives in Amman. Lina Makboul visited her childhood idol there and met a remarkable woman.