Nawal, a nursing assistant who looks after a paralyzed elderly woman, saw her husband pass away in sleep, intestate, and found herself knee-deep in the tussle for custody with ministry of justice and her husband’s family. Owning a home in Syria is not easy and the resistance her husband’s brother Rifqi is notorious for willing to sell their house without any regards to law puts the little family in a dangerous position. In order to be able to keep the caring for her daughter alone without having Rifqi seize them, the only solution that Nawal can think of is giving birth to a son. While Amjad Rasheed has siblings, his brother is also not helpful in the situation as due to social norms and due to villages strict tradition, he turns’s out to be more of an opposition than a sympathizer. Nawal being forced to deal with the dung in the society where she works found some new problems instead. It is a bit hard to believe but, strangely, her line of work actually helps her to some extent.
I’m sure I’m going to commit sins by this, but Amjad Al Rasheed‘s debut” is definitely a polemic film.
The nature of Nawal’s violent oppression at the hands of men becomes more pronounced as the narrative nears its climax. Street men, boys, and even a brother-in-law, and sometimes the brother of Nawal, get a cheap thrill from either unduly and justly brutalizing, sexually harassing, or suffocating her with unwanted attention that is both mandate and a strong bias against the female gender. Rifqi in particular comes out badly in this respect and becomes an archetypal antagonist, as he tends to add multiple layers of misery to his sister in law’s life exactly when she needs support the most, after the death of her husband. Al Rasheed portrays a character who apparently has economic woes because of the late, but his manner is such that any compassion for him is out of the question. Hitham Omari did a fantastic job in playing this character since he is very much at ease with the theme of male domination in society.
The character of her brother is somehow just as interesting with the allure of wanting to care for his sister such that he aids her, but only to the extent that she places him in charge an example of how patriarchy influences him, which makes his conduct and attitude all together entertaining and aggravating, in one more interesting scene in the film.
But the most interesting character of them all has to be the lead actor, a legitimate fighter who uses unconventional means to assist her and her daughter when the circumstances seem implausible.
There is a contemplative aspect to Al Rasheed’s declaration that aside from herself and luck, that if it matters then God if we will trust to her, is something that is important to note. To a certain degree that Al Rasheed shows in the final scenes of the movie where there is no one sane woman searching for them and all the other women gathered around are helpless, Mouna Hawa in the role does speechlessly well.
The film has its share of flaws as well as advantages, and in terms of plot the one flaw that is able to stand out is the retired woman’s family side story arc which was meant to expand the film but felt very out of place and became the weakest elements of the film, although it is entirely true that it is required for the narrative structure of the story for the sake of commentary on the difficulties of women in the country. However, on various occasions, it appears to be at odds with the rest of the narrative of the film.
And through her Nawal desires to be free, Onoyama does a great job with the cinematography, following DP All Star in portraying the raw motion in the act, which can in most cases be said to bring about an interesting parallel to French movies. DP Kaname Onoyama’s camera closely follows the protagonist in an otherwise French style that is, however, quite effective given the quality of the performance.
The movie could have been shorter than its runtime of 113 minutes. Some of the content goes off-topic and as mentioned before, the movie surpasses what is barely the duration it should be. Nonetheless, It was entertaining, thanks to Ahmed Hafez and his editing abilities that resulted in what might be a fast paced movie.
Aside from the couple of issues on-set that can be forgiven, “Inshallah A Boy” is a remarkable trend. One, that gets women to be outraged for the current state of women specifically in Jordan, that seemed to be the main goal of the director.
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