January 12 - 13, 2024 - 8pm
Q&A with Filmmaker Amjad Al Rasheed
The sudden death of her husband leaves Nawal, a young Arab woman 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; That’s my daughter and I will raise her as I see fit—is met with the absolute entitlement of patriarchy. Amjad Al Rasheed’s gripping, taut debut 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. The first film from Jordan ever selected for the Cannes Film Festival.
