Inshallah a son: Nugget at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah

After November 30, the 17 films in competition were revealed during the Red Sea International Film Festival, which highlights cinema from Asia, Africa and the Arab world. If the reactions of the festival goers are to be believed, the sensitivity of Jordanian director Amjad Al Rashid’s first film, Inshallah Sons, has sparked enthusiasm in Jeddah, including us! The film follows Nawal, a 30-year-old Jordanian woman played by Muna Hawa, who suddenly loses her husband. A victim of the laws of the land, he must fight to inherit his share in order to save his daughter and his home in a society where having a son would change the situation.

crazy journey

Backed by the Red Sea Foundation and selected to represent Jordan at the Oscars, the Franco-Jordanian-Saudi co-production began its crazy journey by winning the Ghanaian Foundation Prize at Cannes Critics’ Week. Since then, the film has been shown – and often awarded – at twenty events in France and fifty internationally, from the BFI in London to the Toronto Film Festival via Jakarta Film Week (Audience Prize), Camerimage in Poland (First Best). Film Award) and Rotterdam Arab Film Festival (Jury Prize and Best Actress Prize). Mouna Hawa even won an acting award at the Asia Pacific Screen Award in Australia and the Thessaloniki Film Festival (Greece). An extraordinary journey.

Resist without weapons

The director, nourished by the conversations of women he overheard in his childhood, was inspired by a true story he witnessed. Her sensitivity allows her to deliver a delicate film that bears witness, without sensationalism, but in depth, to a society where women are simply trying to exist. We witness the journey of Nawal, who resists without a weapon but determined to save his own skin and that of his daughter. The audience laughs when they recognize the absurd scenes of everyday life, applauds when the heroine, a victim of repeated street harassment, dares to rebel or trembles at her dismay. The film is shocking, and if the jury chaired by Baz Luhrmann is sensitive to it, God bless you son It may take its place in the ranking of the Saudi Arabian festival, which will be revealed this Saturday, December 9. It will be on French screens on March 6.