Daily Times

‘Inshallah A Boy’ is selected by Jordan as an official submission for the Best Foreign Film at the 96th Academy Awards after Amjad Al Rasheed’s debut movie made history earlier this year when it became the first Jordanian feature film to premiere in Cannes.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to be announced on Dec 21, with the final five nominees announced in the following month on Jan 23.

It had received the Gan Foundation Award and the Rail D’Or Award for Best Feature Film in Cannes. It was followed by Best Actress and Jury Award at the Rotterdam Arab Film Festival, as well as the Women’s Jury Award and the Grand Jury Award at the Paysages de Cinéastes.

According to Rasheed, the main idea was to talk about a woman who refuses something that’s considered normal in her society – as the movie revolves around a young widow – Nawal – who is in danger of losing hers and her daughter’s home, but decides to fight back.

Nawaz finds out after her husband’s sudden death that his family might be entitled to everything she owns, including her home. Reason? Local inheritance law and because she only gave birth to a daughter. But she determined to fight back and pretends to be pregnant again.

Rasheed points out to the social injustices based upon the mindset and practices followed by the people and the state as a male-dominated society controls everything including women and every individual who is a bit different.

On the other hand, the story at the same time also follows the life of another woman who is a part of a wealthy Christian household of her employer. She is considering divorce.

Meanwhile, Nawal’s story was inspired by Rasheed’s own relative who found herself in a very similar predicament after having dedicated her whole life to her family.

It all started when she bought a house, but her husband insisted on putting the deed in his name. The argument was that it’s shameful for a man to be living in a woman’s house. And the mother of three surrendered. After her husband’s death, his family said that they “allow her to stay in the house.”