Inshallah A Boy / Film School radio interview with Director Amjad Al Rasheed

INSHALLAH A BOY is Jordan’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards®. It begins with the sudden death of the husband of Nawal, a young Arab woman. The tragedy leaves her and her daughter without rights or property under Islamic law—and at the mercy of male relatives. Both her own brother and brother-in-law at first show sympathy. But soon it’s clear that any whiff of assertion—I paid for half this house; I will keep my job; I will raise my daughter as I see fit—is met with the forces of patriarchy. Amjad Al Rasheed’s gripping, taut debut INSHALLAH A BOY immerses us in the tangled impossibilities for a woman who simply wants to keep her home and protect her daughter, without a husband or male heir to legitimize her. Her acts of resistance (including necessary deception) enmesh multiple players in a complex web of risk and hope – reminiscent of Asghar Farhadi’s masterpiece A SEPARATION – as we root and fear for her at every turn. Director/Co-writer Amjad Al Rasheed stops by to talk about the inspiration for his multi-faceted, finding his lead actor Mouna Hawa to play Nawal and the superb supporting cast as well as the pride tken from the wide recognition the film has received from the Cannes Film Festival and other prestigious film festivals from around the world. US Premiere Friday, January 12 at Film Forum in NYC To watch go to: greenwichentertainment.com/inshallah-a-boy