The President’s Cake. 2025. Iraq. Written and directed by Hasan Hadi. With Baneen Ahmed Nayyef, Sajad Mohamad Qasem, Waheeda Thabet Khreibat, Rahim AlHaj. DCP courtesy Sony Pictures Classics. In Arabic; English subtitles. 105 min.
Inspired by childhood memories of 1990s Iraq under Saddam Hussein, writer-director Hasan Hadi’s affecting debut feature follows a nine-year-old girl tasked with bringing a cake to school for the President’s mandatory birthday celebration. Against a backdrop of crippling poverty and food shortages, she journeys from her marshland home to a nearby city in search of ingredients. Shot on location in Iraq with nonprofessional actors, this tender, tragicomic odyssey offers a poignant child’s-eye view of life under authoritarian rule, recalling Iranian films by such directors as Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi that similarly follow determined youngsters on a mission. The film was awarded the Caméra d’Or at Cannes for best first feature.
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