ARABIAN SIGHTS

Inshallah a Boy

Inshallah Walad

AMJAD AL RASHEED
Jordan, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, 2023
113 minutes, Color

Inshallah a Boy is the first Jordanian film to compete at the Cannes Film Festival and is Jordan's submission to the Academy Awards®. This story of a widow who pretends she is pregnant with a boy to keep a roof over her head is a suspenseful and engrossing portrait of resistance and strength. The film follows Nawal, a mother and housewife whose husband suddenly dies unexpectedly. In the absence of legal documents, her brother-in-law swoops in under the auspices of inheritance laws to exercise his claim on not just the couple's apartment but also on guardianship of Nawal's young daughter, Nora. Nawal is forced into a series of rash situations to hold onto her family and claim what should rightfully be hers.—Various sources

In Arabic with English subtitles