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In the Jordanian film, “God willing, a boy,” director Amjad Al-Rasheed presents intertwined human stories and tales about the lives of Jordanian and Arab women, and questions that are characterized by directness and boldness in confronting prevailing customs and traditions.
Al-Rasheed was able to win two awards for the film at the last session of the Cannes Film Festival, in addition to participating in a number of international festivals and having his film screened for the first time in the Arab world in the third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival.
The boldness of the proposition
The events of “God willing, there will be a son” intersect between two models representing Arab women: Nawal, the heroine of the film, who lives in Amman and finds that her life is threatened after the loss of her husband, and his brother’s attempts to share the apartment in which she is sheltering with her young daughter, so she becomes deprived of her right to own her inheritance, and Lauren. The daughter of a wealthy family, Nawal works as a nurse for her grandmother.
Lauren suffers from her husband's abuse, her family's refusal to separate, and religious laws that prevent such divorce. They both suffer from societal restrictions and male discrimination, and from here begin the stories that bring them together, as Lauren tries to have an abortion because she refuses to have children with a husband she cannot bear to live with.
Director Amjad Al-Rasheed did not deny in his interview with Al Jazeera Net that some advised him to be cautious for daring to raise such an issue, because he believes that Arab societies that are going through a sensitive period must be allowed freedom of expression and presenting ideas without fear.
He continued that he does not want to be a hero or present topics that raise controversy, but he raised an issue that concerns an entire society that needs to re-evaluate many things, including customs, traditions, and laws, and think about whether they are appropriate for our current time. The main goal is to leave a space of thought for the spectator, and through thinking, it is possible to reach… Better society.
Direct conversational language was used by Al-Rashid to support his case, including the situations between the heroine and her deceased husband’s brother when she asks if the matter would be different if she had given birth to a boy. Al-Rasheed says that he saw and heard these dialogues in the film in reality, so he was keen to convey them as they were told, and the spontaneous and unassuming performance contributed to the work appearing as closer to reality, along with the filming locations that expressed the class that lives on the margins of society.
Half of the complex is suspended
The action scenes conveyed the inspiration of reality and the intelligence of its makers in creating a dramatic structure that escalates when the heroine resorts to claiming her pregnancy in an attempt to buy time, before this claim turns into reality and has an open ending.
As for Jordanian director Amjad Al-Rasheed, he decided to challenge, with his message in the film, the common statement that women are half of society. He says: “We claim that women are half of society, and I wanted to challenge these ideas. How can half of society be disabled and not obtain their rights? The issue here is no.” It concerns women alone. It is a broader and more general societal issue. It is a social story about a society suffering from crises.”
Success beyond borders
The local issue attracted global attention when it expressed a crisis affecting women globally, and this appeared in international forums and festivals. It was the first Jordanian film to participate in the Cannes Film Festival, and won two awards from the festival, in addition to representing Jordan on the Oscars long list.
Al-Rashid says: This remarkable development in cinema in the Arab world and Jordan is the product of awareness. The world has become one place and common issues. The issue has, in one way or another, affected women in the Western world as well, who suffer from other laws, such as receiving lower salaries than men, for example. The movie “God willing, there will be a son” tells about an aspect that concerns our society but is reflected in the entire world.
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