‘Inshallah a Boy’ Review: Where the Male Line Is the Only Line

Before things take an unjust turn in Amjad Al Rasheed’s tense and accomplished directorial debut, “Inshallah a Boy,” a wife and husband lie in bed discussing the timing to conceive a second child. There is something sweet in the exhaustion of the husband, Adnan (Mohammad Suleiman), and surprising in his admission to his wife, Nawal (Mouna Hawa), that he’s the cause of their fertility issues. This promising exchange will be their last.

Adnan’s death throws Nawal into a tailspin she fears she cannot navigate, but she manages in ways that are at times resolute and at others desperate. To forestall her brother-in-law Rifqi (Haitham Omari) from pressing his legal right to seize the home where she and her daughter, Nora, live, Nawal tells a judge that she is pregnant. True or false, it’s the kind of declaration that has a fast-approaching expiration date.

The first Jordanian film to compete at Cannes, “Inshallah,” from its very title, promises to delve into a patriarchal system that values men over women. (If only Nawal, god willing, had a son, ownership of the house would not be an issue.) But the filmmaker — and his fellow writers, Rula Nasser and Delphine Agut — also tussles with economic tensions that have implications beyond gender.

Hawa, a Palestinian actress, is commanding as a woman whose future and faith are buffeted by her narrowing options. And the ensemble that buttresses the film — Nawal’s brother Ahmad (Mohammad Al Jizawi); Lauren (Yumna Marwan), the haughty and unhappily pregnant daughter of the Christian family that employs Nawal as a nurse; and Hassan (Eslam al-Awadi), a physical therapist who wants to be more than her colleague — makes Nawal’s alliances appear transactional, fraught and so very fragile.

Inshallah a Boy
Not rated. In Arabic, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes. In theaters.