Avis des critiques

Although the script, from Al-Rasheed and co-writers Delphine Agut and Rula Nasser, is at times overstuffed and its symbolism obvious, its world is so well built out and Palestinian actress Mouna Hawa’s lead performance is so absorbing, the final result is a mesmerizing piece of personal, yet political filmmaking.

Inshallah a Boy doesn’t give any clear answers. Instead, the film offers a look at the life of an ordinary woman in Jordan, going through an ordeal likely faced by many like her.

“Inshallah,” from its very title, promises to delve into a patriarchal system that values men over women... But the filmmaker — and his fellow writers, Rula Nasser and Delphine Agut — also tussles with economic tensions that have implications beyond gender.

Inshallah A Boy wants to mire in the dismal circumstances of women in Jordan, but doesn’t want to leave us feeling down. It asks us to root for the underdog, only to show us that they’re actually the home team.

Inshallah a Boy director Amjad Al Rasheed eviscerates the misogyny he sees around him, inscribed in tradition and in the law, so relentlessly that it is surprising – and heartening – to see it selected as the Jordanian entry for the Oscars.

Hawa’s performance, and young Rababah, who at one point turns a cheek from her uncle with the delicacy of a sledgehammer: you know the film won’t do her too wrong, and thrills come from seeing how close she will walk to the precipice. This does less to take the sting out of the drama than one might think: the pleasure of watching is not in wondering if she’ll overcome things but how.

“Inshallah a Boy” moves like a sleek thriller, but is full of the unsolved mysteries and dangling question marks of real life...

For the most part, Al Rasheed employs his metaphors skillfully by making sure the plot remains convincingly character-driven.

Ultimately, there are no villains here: everyone suffers in this system of inequality where even someone who wants to take control of their own life can’t. At times, Nawal behaves irrationally, but, motivated by her stirring fight for independence, Mouna Hawa’s (In Between) sincere and gutsy performance will win audience favour.

Inshallah a Boy is fairly gripping as it unfolds, but as Nawal’s schemes to potentially conceive another child, or deceive her opponents about that likelihood, grow ever more outlandish, it begins to convince more as an empowering arc for her... than as a satisfying response to the country’s patriarchal dominance.