2023 Award Winning Debut Feature from Jordan Now Available on DVD

DIRECTED BY AMJAD AL RASHEED/2023

DVD STREET DATE: MARCH 12, 2024/KINO LORBER

As the next installment of my mini-series reviewing recent home video releases from less familiar international cinema scenes, in the video embedded below, I share my thoughts about Inshallah A Boy, a film from the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan that premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Situated in a contemporary urban setting, presumably in the Jordanian capital of Amman, the story focuses on the plight of Nawal, a wife and mother of a young girl (Nora) whose husband Ahmad dies suddenly and unexpectedly. She hardly has time to grieve his passing before more extensive and disruptive shocks begin to pile up, as she learns of numerous debts he owed that he never told her about but which she is now obliged to repay from the meager assets he left behind. And since the couple never gave birth to a son, the prevailing patriarchal customs leave her almost entirely without agency or even the legal right to determine how she and Nora will maintain their household. 

Tradition, backed with the force of law and the indifference of magistrates, subjects her financial and housing arrangements to the control of her late husband’s brother Rifqi, since there is no male heir that the system will recognize to keep this family intact. Rifqi for his part is driven partly by greed to claim his share of a surprising windfall, but also feels altogether justified in taking control of her worldly affairs since he had put up some of the money that Ahmad used as a down payment on a pickup truck that hadn’t yet been paid for in full. And he has the full backing of a culture that practically demands that he show “compassion” in taking supposedly benevolent care of his late brother’s wife and her dependent child. 

In the eyes of the authorities, the only loophole available to Nawal that would legitimize her case for self-determination as a widow would be if she was pregnant, carrying her husband’s child with at least the potential to give birth to a son. Through circumstances that I won’t describe here, such a ruse becomes possible when she seizes upon it in an act of desperation that can only buy her a little more time to potentially figure out a better solution. A number of plot twists ensue that, while clearly being a broad stretch in terms of plausibility at times, keep viewers in a state of tension as we follow her navigation through truly perilous encounters that would doubtlessly expose her to punitive wrath if the full extent of her deceit is discovered.

Knowing very little myself of the cultural and social realities of everyday life in Jordan, I greatly appreciated the opportunity that Inshallah A Boy provided to give me some insight not only on the difficult conditions that many women are forced to endure in that nation, but on the apparent differences in class and privilege that exist between some segments of the populace based on their affiliation with Islam and Christianity. As with all first-impressions, it’s important to not draw too many conclusions based on one’s initial encounter, but I came away from the film feeling both reasonably informed on dilemmas created by archaic beliefs and impressed by the effectiveness of director Amjad Al Rasheed’s skills as an ambitious story-teller and the evocative performance of Mouna Hawa as Nawal. She balances the exasperation and futility felt by her character with a strong determination to find a path forward from her predicament, not just for her own sake but to also provide a stable life and hope for the future in her daughter who’s just at that age where she’s beginning to understand how the larger world operates, all too often indifferent, if not outright contemptuous, toward the welfare of those considered “lesser than” by those in positions of privilege and control.

This video is the third of a five-part series focusing on recent home video releases of international films by Kino Lorber. 

DVD Extra:

  • Theatrical Trailer